Radiological findings from 81 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study

EN BREF ...

"Beginning in December, 2019, a cluster of cases of pneumonia with unknown cause was reported in Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China.1 On Jan 7, 2020, a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; previously known as 2019-nCoV), was identified as the causative organism by Chinese facilities via deep sequencing analysis of patients' respiratory tract samples.2, 3 SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to infect human respiratory epithelial cells through an interaction between the viral S protein and the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor on human cells; thus, SARS-CoV-2 possesses a strong capability to infect humans.3 Most of the initial cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, were epidemiologically linked to exposure to Wuhan's Huanan seafood market, where wild animals are traded.4, 5 Although the market has been closed since Jan 1, 2020, as part of efforts to contain the outbreak, patients without exposure to the market but with a history of travel to Wuhan or close physical contact with a patient confirmed to have COVID-19, including health-care workers, have also been identified, suggesting strong human-to-human transmission. The number of cases has been increasing rapidly: by Feb 15, 2020, more than 60 000 cases of COVID-19 pneumonia had been reported in China and in other countries worldwide (including Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and the USA),6, 7, 8, 9 and 1524 patients had died, equivalent to a mortality rate of around 2%...."