SOUTH AFRICA - 9 MONTH OLD CAPE TOWN TODDLER DIAGNOSED WITH CORONAVIRUS

A young Cape Town mother went into a panic on Wednesday when her nine-month-old daughter was diagnosed with coronavirus.

But the hospital has assured the 29-year-old woman, who doesn’t want to be identified, that there was nothing to worry about as her baby girl is not suffering from the deadly strain of the virus which is causing panic in the world- China in particular- where more than a 100 people have already died.

The mom says her baby had displayed flu-like symptoms on Monday and they took her to their local GP who referred them to Melomed Tokai for further testing.

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“I got the test results and it showed ‘Corona virus detected’ and this immediately made me think the worse because of everything we’ve seen in the media about the dangerous coronavirus from China,” she says.

According to the results of the sputum test, the Coronavirus NL63, as well as Human Rhinovirus and Influenza A (H1N1) were detected in the baby.

But this virus is different from the strain in China.

Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds and can be transferred to humans.

In humans, it causes respiratory infections, including the common cold, but rarer forms like SARS and MERS can be lethal.

The name “coronavirus” is derived from the Latin word, meaning crown, and refers to the halo-like particles around the virus.

Seven human coronaviruses have been identified to date: two in the 1960s, and five since the deadly SARS outbreak in Asia in 2003.

The latest one in China, which broke out in December 2019, is suspected to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan.

The mother says after reading that her child has coronavirus, she panicked and tried to figure out how her baby could have caught it all the way from China.

“Doctors came to her bed (yesterday) and I just burst into tears thinking the worst, but the doctor explained that [pathologists] put corona virus on my results with a code which I did not understand.

“As a parent, you just see coronavirus and don’t know the knowledge and seeing her like this is heartbreaking. But she just has the flu.

“Doctors say that if she had the dangerous coronavirus from China, she would have been in a separate room under quarantine, and she wouldn’t have been as calm as she is and we would have had to wear masks,” she says.

Melomed Group Marketing Manager Shameema Adams confirmed the baby was admitted for observation.

“We would like to assure you that this strain of coronavirus is not the one from China and is a normal seasonal flu virus which will be detected in children especially where there is also a case of H1N1.

“This has also been confirmed by Dr Maritz at the Virology department of PathCare.”

via - IOL