China pneumonia outbreak spurs WHO action

MELBOURNE, Australia — A mysterious lung infection in the Chinese city of Wuhan is being monitored by the World Health Organization, which said it’s in active communication with its counterparts in China, where an investigation is underway to determine the cause.

The United Nations agency activated its incident-management system at the country, regional and global level and is standing ready to launch a broader response if it’s needed, the WHO’s regional office in Manila, Philippines, said in Twitter posts Saturday.

As of Friday, 44 people had been diagnosed with pneumonia, the cause of which is unknown, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement. That’s up from 27 three days earlier. Eleven people are in serious condition. Some of the infected worked at a fresh seafood and produce market in the city.

“China has extensive capacity to respond to public health events and is responding proactively and rapidly to the current incident in Wuhan — isolating patients, tracing close contacts, cleaning up the market, and searching for the cause and for additional cases,” the WHO said.

Pathogen studies have ruled out more common respiratory diseases, including influenza, avian flu and adenovirus, Wuhan health authorities said. All the patients are being treated under quarantine, according to the commission.

The seafood market, which has since been closed, also sold birds, pheasants, and snakes, along with organs of rabbits and other wildlife, the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy said Thursday, citing media reports.

That’s triggered concern about the potential jump of an unknown virus to humans — reminiscent of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, which killed almost 800 people about 17 years ago. The Wuhan Institute of Virology didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment on the infectious source.

It’s not known whether a SARS-like “coronavirus” has been identified, although there have been “numerous unsubstantiated reports mentioning a novel coronavirus that is SARS-like,” the International Society for Infectious Diseases’ ProMED-mail program said Friday.