Health

A second person has died after contracting the coronavirus found in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, while Thailand has confirmed a second case of the virus.   A 69-year-old man died on Wednesday, Wuhan Health Commission said late on Thursday. He had shown symptoms on December 21 before being admitted to Wuhan Medical Treatment Center – where all suspected cases of the viral pneumonia have been treated – on January 4 after his condition worsened, the commission’s statement said. The man had a heart muscle infection and tuberculosis when he was admitted to hospital, it said. It follows the death last week of a 61-year-old man, who had tested positive for the coronavirus and also had abdomin

Thai authorities confirmed on Monday the first case outside China of a patient infected with the new virus behind the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak. The woman, 61, is identified as a Chinese tourist from the city in central Hubei province.  She has been receiving treatment in a hospital in Nonthaburi near Bangkok since January 8, but is now recovering, according to Bloomberg and Thai media outlets. An expert said if further investigation found she had not been to Huanan Seafood Market, associated with the outbreak in Wuhan, it would suggest that the virus had spread to other parts of the city. The news came as Hong Kong health officials arrived in Wuhan on Monday to gain first-hand knowledge of t

China says it has identified a new strain of coronavirus from the same family that caused the 2002-03 Sars epidemic as the cause of a mystery pneumonia outbreak in the central city of Wuhan. At least 59 people have been infected since the outbreak was first reported last month, prompting worries about an epidemic like Sars, which killed hundreds of people in China. Laboratory tests have identified the new virus and the whole genome sequence has been obtained, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday, citing a task force of medical experts. Fifteen patients in Wuhan had tested positive for the virus, which showed “typical coronavirus morphology,” the television report said. “The pathogen o

Since 2015, China has been engaged in a “toilet revolution” to clean up much-lamented public loos around the nation. Now the battle for better bathrooms is entering a new phase in places like Hangzhou. The capital of the eastern province of Zhejiang recently introduced a “smart” toilet, that turns answering nature’s call into a unique, relaxing and even pleasant experience.

The murder of a doctor in Beijing has overshadowed the passage of a law designed to improve basic health care services in China, and has put a spotlight on the problems the law is trying to fix.  The fatal stabbing was the latest in a string of attacks on medical staff by angry patients and their relatives. Tensions are being fueled by a lack of resources and limited services at many medical facilities. In the latest incident, the doctor Yang Wen was stabbed in the neck on Christmas Eve following a row with the relatives of a 95-year-old stroke victim at the Civil Aviation General Hospital in Beijing. She died the following day. Doctors said the patient’s family had dismissed repeated sugge

Under Chinese law, unmarried women are not allowed to freeze their eggs for in vitro fertilization. Xu Zaozao, a 31-year-old single woman, says it is time to change the rules to give women more control over their bodies. Xu has filed a lawsuit against the hospital that denied her request to freeze her eggs. The case brought attention to the plight of women struggling to access IVF in China.

After Wu Xianfa was diagnosed with lung cancer last year, he had surgery to remove part of his lower left lung. When his doctor recommended chemotherapy to wipe out any remaining cancer cells, Wu refused. Colleagues who had also had lung cancer had died after getting chemotherapy straight after surgery. Following a friend’s recommendation, the 50-year-old from Shanghai started taking an experimental drug. He signed an agreement with Shanghai Spark Pharmaceutical in April last year to join its trial – and says it has been a boon to his health. “I get no other treatments besides the drug,” Wu says. “I get regular checks at hospitals and send the reports about my cancer index and other medical

China Aids Walk is the nation’s largest awareness and fundraising event focusing on HIV discrimination. Since 2012, people from a wide range of backgrounds have been invited to take part in the event at China’s Great Wall. The event aims to educate the public about HIV, advocate for equal rights for those infected with the virus and raise funds for communities affected by the disease. The group also organizes walking events in six other Chinese cities, drawing in more than 4,000 participants. Martin Yang, director of China Aids Walk, spoke to us about the goals of the organization.

Zhai Yiping clearly broke the law. But is what he did wrong? The question has been raised as part of a discussion of China’s health care system after Zhai was punished for selling foreign drugs to cancer patients in a country where those medications are unavailable or expensive. After being diagnosed with liver cancer in 2014, Zhai devoured news of the latest cancer drugs released around the world. In 2016, he found two new overseas medicines that were more effective than similar medications in China and cost less.  Zhai spread the news to other patients in China and, eventually, the demand became so high that he started to smuggle these drugs from Germany. He charged a 5% markup. He would b

A man from Inner Mongolia, in northern China, has contracted the bubonic plague after eating a wild rabbit, the local health authority said on Sunday.  The diagnosis came less than a week after two other people from the region were reported to have fallen ill with the pneumonic form of the disease. Plague, which comes in three strains – bubonic, pneumonic and septicaemic – is categorized as the most severe contagious disease in China due to its high infection and mortality rates. The latest victim is a 55-year-old man who was not named. He caught and ate the rabbit on November 5 and appeared unaffected for more than a week. However, on Saturday he fell ill with a fever and went to the hospit