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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 11
| Issue : 1 | Page : 49 |
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Spreading from hot foci of COVID-19 to another country: Observation from Thailand on disease importation by foreigner
Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip1, Viroj Wiwanitkit2
1 26 Medical Center, Bangkok, Thailand
2 Honorary Professor, Dr. DY Patil University, Pune, Maharashtra, India; Visiting Professor, Hainan Medical University, Haikou, China
| Date of Submission | 09-Mar-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 23-Mar-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 23-Apr-2020 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Rujittika Mungmunpuntipantip
Medical Center, Bangkok
Thailand
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_117_20
How to cite this article:
Mungmunpuntipantip R, Wiwanitkit V. Spreading from hot foci of COVID-19 to another country: Observation from Thailand on disease importation by foreigner. Int J Prev Med 2020;11:49 |
How to cite this URL:
Mungmunpuntipantip R, Wiwanitkit V. Spreading from hot foci of COVID-19 to another country: Observation from Thailand on disease importation by foreigner. Int J Prev Med [serial online] 2020 [cited 2023 Oct 4];11:49. Available from: https://www.ijpvmjournal.net/text.asp?2020/11/1/49/283163 |
Dear Editor,
COVID-19 is an important new disease. It firstly appeared in China and spread to more than 60 countries at present (9th March 2020).[1] The dynamicity of disease spreading is very interesting in clinical epidemiology. Thailand is a country in Southeast Asia and it is the second country that the disease existed in.[2] Until present, there are 50 accumulated cases in Thailand and there are still continuous importations of disease from countries with outbreak to Thailand. Of those 50 cases, there are many importations by foreigners from main hot foci of COVID-19, either China in Asia and Italy in Europe.[3]
Here, the authors reappraised on the scenario of importation of COVID-19 from China and Italy to Thailand. From 50 cases of COVID-19, there are 26 Chinese tourists and 1 Italian tourists that imported disease from China and Italy, respectively. To characterize the pattern of spreading hot China and Italy to Thailand, the authors summarize data on date of first disease appearance, statistical number of foreigners to Thailand (referred to most update data 2019; provided by Thai Ministry of Tourism and Sport), accumulated number of infected COVID-19 cases at origin (foreign countries with outbreak) [Table 1].
For determining the spreading pattern from origin hot foci, China and Italy, to Thailand, it can be characterized according to this formula “accumulated COVID-19 at origin/statistical number of foreigners to Thailand/period until importation to Thailand.” The results show that the spreading patter is 3.22 × 10-13 and 1.35 × 10-11 case/day. This can show that the spreading from China is more serious than from Italy. This result is concordant with a recent report that the spreading from China is more risk for nearby Asian country.[4] We suggested that the determination of characterization of spreading from foci of outbreak and should be performed to plan for preventive actions against COVID-19.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Hsia W. Emerging new coronavirus infection in Wuhan, China: Situation in early 2020. Case Study Case Rep 2020;10:8-9.  |
| 2. | Yasri S, Wiwanitkit V. Editorial: Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and imported case. Adv Trop Med Pub Health Int 2019;9:1-2. |
| 3. | Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O'Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, et al. World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg 2020. pii: S1743-9191 (20) 30197-7. |
| 4. | Haider N, Yavlinsky A, Simons D, Osman AY, Ntoumi F, Zumla A, et al. Passengers' destinations from China: Low risk of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) transmission into Africa and South America. Epidemiol Infect 2020;148:e41. |
[Table 1]
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