Health authorities around the world are closely monitoring the spread of the coronavirus that emerged in China at the end of 2019.
In Europe, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control published, on Tuesday 21 January, its rapid risk assessment in which it stresses that "the likelihood of infection for travellers visiting Wuhan having close contact with symptomatic individuals is considered moderate" and that "as a result, the likelihood of importing cases into the EU/EEA is also considered moderate". It is on the basis of this report that the Health Security Committee was due to meet in the afternoon of 22 January to discuss the potential implications for the EU.
Another meeting was to be held in conjunction with the World Health Organisation in Geneva to determine whether to declare a "public health emergency of international concern". The WHO has so far only used this term for rare outbreaks requiring a strong international response, including H1N1 swine flu in 2009, the Zika virus in 2016 and the Ebola fever, which occurred in parts of West Africa from 2014 to 2016 and in the DRC since 2018. At the time of going to press, their verdict was not yet known.
To date, the Chinese authorities have confirmed nine deaths and 400 cases. The new virus, which is transmitted through the respiratory tract, has also affected Thailand, Japan and South Korea. So far it has not yet reached our continent, but if it does, Europe will be ready to respond, Professor Herman Goossens of the University of Antwerp, who coordinates the Outbreak Committee of the European Commission-funded Platform for European Preparedness Against (Re-)emerging Epidemics, PREPARE, told the Belga agency on 22 January. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)