Pneumonia of Unknown Cause

Pneumonia of Unknown Cause

Pneumonia of unknown cause is a medical term coined by the Chinese health authorities for timely detection and treatment of SARS, human avian influenza and other infectious pneumonia. Patients of pneumonia of unknown cause have the following clinical signs and symptoms: fever (axillary temperature is 38 degrees centigrade or higher), imaging features of pneumonia, decreasing or normal leukocyte count or decreasing lymphocyte count in the early stage of the disease, and no significant improvement or even progressive aggravation after standard anti-microbial treatment for three to five days.

In December 2019, more than one case of viral pneumonia of unknown cause was reported in Wuhan. On December 31, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announced that the clinical pictures of recent cases of "pneumonia of unknown cause" were mainly fever, and a small number of patients had breathing difficulties and infiltration in both lungs. The earliest onset of the disease was on December 8, 2019. On January 7, 2020, the pathogen of this pneumonia virus was identified as "novel coronavirus."

After the outbreak of the epidemic, Wuhan quickly took strict prevention and control measures, including case finding, isolation, admission to designated hospitals, medical observation of close contacts, and emergency monitoring. The principle of "early detection, early reporting, early isolation and early treatment" was also resolutely implemented.

不明原因肺炎

不明原因肺炎，是中國衛生部門為及時發現和處理SARS、人禽流感以及其他傳染性肺炎提出的一種醫學概念。不明原因肺炎送檢需滿足四個標準：發熱（腋下體溫≥38℃)；具有肺炎的影像學特征；發病早期白細胞總數降低或正常，或淋巴細胞分類計數減少；經規范抗菌藥物治療3～5天，病情無明顯改善或呈進行性加重。

2019年12月以來，武漢出現多例不明原因病毒性肺炎病例。12月31日，武漢市衛健委發布通報稱，武漢“不明原因肺炎”病例的臨床表現主要為發熱，少數病人呼吸困難，胸片呈雙肺浸潤性病灶，收治患者最早發病時間為2019年12月8日。2020年1月7日，該不明原因肺炎病毒病原體被確定為“新型冠狀病毒”。疫情發生后，武漢市迅速采取嚴厲防控措施，包括病例搜索、隔離、指定醫院收治、對密切接觸者進行醫學觀察、應急監測等，并果斷實施“早診斷、早隔離、早報告和早治療”的收治方案。