by Martin Enserink on 4 April 2013,
On 26 March, a 73-year-old man from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, died at the Klinikum Schwabing, a hospital in Munich. He was the 11th known fatality related to infection with the novel coronavirus (nCoV), a pathogen that was first reported in September 2012 and isattracting substantial interest from researchers. Overall, officials have reported 17 cases of nCoV infection.
Clemens Wendtner, a professor of medicine and assistant medical director at the University of Cologne, is a physician at the Munich hospital.ScienceInsider asked Wendtner how the case was handled and why he thinks the patient may have been infected by one of his racing camels. Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Why did the patient seek treatment in Germany and why did he come to the Klinikum Schwabing?
C.W.: We are one of seven reference centers for infectious diseases in Germany; the Klinikum Schwabing has a unit for highly contagious patients, and one of the first SARS patients was treated here in 2003. This particular patient was treated in Munich for multiple myeloma, which had been diagnosed in 2009. He flew into Germany on a frequent basis to get chemotherapy and even stem cell transplantation at a private center.
While in Abu Dhabi, his condition deteriorated, and his treating hematologist here in Munich asked to fly him in to get a closer look; the family also wanted him to be transferred. At this point we only knew he had some pulmonary problems, but we were not aware of any coronavirus testing; this was not done in the United Arab Emirates.
Q: When did you suspect he might have the virus?
C.W.: When we examined his condition and saw his medication list; he had even started on [the influenza drug] Tamiflu, but his condition didn't improve. So we said: "Maybe it's a good idea to check for the coronavirus." So we did a bronchoalveolar lavage, [a procedure to sample fluid from the lungs,] and sent the material to Christian Drosten's lab at the University of Bonn; this is the German reference lab for the new coronavirus. The results came back on 23 March. At this point, the patient's medical condition was quite bad. http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2013/04/german-researchers-to-probe-came.html
