New Delhi, January 30: The coronavirus, spreading akin to an epidemic's pace in China, has claimed 169 lives so far with nearly 2,000 cases being detected. A Lancet medical journal study last week suggested that cases of 2019-nCOv can go undetected in otherwise healthy people. The claim has further been validated through the case a of 10-year-old boy. Coronavirus Outbreak: Global Airlines Start Suspending Flights to China.

The child, living in central Chinese city Wuhan - the epicentre of coronavirus outbreak - did not show any symptoms of the SARS-like virus even as his parents and grandparents were diagnosed with the disease. Only after insistence by his parents, the boy was tested by the medical team in Wuhan. It was found that he was shredding the virus despite not showing any of the symptoms, found a Bloomberg report.

The case has raised fresh concerns on whether those returning to their respective nations from China, despite being screened at the airports, may have contracted the virus. The same could be transmitted to those with weakened immune system, who would begin showing the symptoms related to coronavirus.

The Lancet study, which first suggested that coronavirus may go undetected, analysed a set of 41 patients in Wuhan. Among them, over two-third were otherwise healthy people who were not suffering from either diabetes, heart disease or hypertension. A section among them also did not show any symptoms related to the disease.

The symptoms of coronavirus include sore throats, runny noses, diarrhea, as well as headache in some of the cases. Unlike the SARS (severely acute respiratory syndrome) which had broken out in China in 2002-03, the coronavirus can infect people without any signs of symptoms. This revelation, through the Lancet study and the case of 10-year-old Wuhan boy, may end up necessitating a calibrated strategy to combat the coronavirus outbreak.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 30, 2020 01:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).