The Malaysian Insight

PASSENGERS arriving from Wuhan, China, will be screened at airport immigration checkpoints to prevent the spread of a still unknown pneumonia-like virus, the Health Ministry said.

Deputy Minister Lee Boon Chye told The Malaysian Insight that those who feel unwell after having travelled to China should seek immediate treatment at government hospitals.

Citing the latest update by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Lee said there are 59 cases of what has been dubbed the “Wuhan flu” in a week.

According to media reports, 15 such cases have been detected in Hong Kong but Lee did not mention temperature checks on passengers arriving in Malaysia from Hong Kong.

The Chinese authorities have ruled out severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) or bird flu.

Wuhan has placed 163 people under medical observation.

Lee said no preventive measures would be taken to check arrivals from Singapore, where a toddler was suspected of having contracted the mystery virus.

“In other words, no cases have been reported in other regions,” he said.

Malaysia is also seeing a surge in influenza cases but director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said two days ago the increase was “slight” and within the normal range based on the pattern of previous years.

No deaths have been reported so far in the Wuhan outbreak reported in late December.

“The virus has not been determined yet,” Lee said of the outbreak.

“At present, the virus shows no sign of human transmission, so the risk is not high.

“In Wuhan, the outbreak is linked to a wet market selling seafood and the market was closed on January 1.”

China ordered the market’s closure after several stallholders took ill with the virus of unidentified origin.

Besides seafood, some vendors at the market also sold wildlife, including snakes and birds, raising concerns of similarities to the SARS outbreak in 2003, which was traced to the wildlife meat trade in Guangdong.

Lee urged people not to worry as the Health Ministry was in close contact with its Chinese counterpart and the WHO for updates on the virus.

The Malaysian Health Ministry’s disease control division has issued a statement saying investigations are being carried out in China to identify the pathogens causing the disease.

“There are many potential causes of viral pneumonia, many of which are more common than the SARS coronavirus. WHO is closely monitoring this event and will share more details with us in due course,” it said. – January 7, 2020.