The Chinese doctor who sounded the alarm on the Wuhan coronavirus has died

The Chinese doctor who sounded the alarm on the Wuhan coronavirus has died

The Chinese doctor who tried to warn others about the Wuhan coronavirus has died, consistent with several state media reports.

Li Wenliang, a 34-year-old doctor working in Wuhan, raised the alarm about the novel coronavirus on December 30, posting in his school of medicine alumni group on the Chinese messaging app WeChat that seven patients from an area seafood market had been diagnosed with a SARS-like illness and was quarantined in his hospital.

Soon after he posted the message, Li was accused of rumor-mongering by the Wuhan police. He was one among several medics targeted by police for trying to blow the whistle on the deadly virus within the early weeks of the outbreak, which has sickened quite 28,000 people and killed quite 560.

I was hospitalized on January 12 after contracted the virus from one among his patients, and he was confirmed to possess the coronavirus on February 1.

On Thursday a politician for the planet Health Organization expressed sadness at the news of Li's death.

"We are very sad to listen to the loss of Li Wenliang," Dr. Mike Ryan, an executive for the planet Health Organization's Health Emergencies program, said when asked about the doctor's death during a daily coronavirus press briefing in Geneva.

"We should celebrate his life and mourn his death alongside colleagues," Ryan added.

The price and number of individuals infected by the Wuhan coronavirus continues to grow, with no signs of slowing despite severe quarantine and social control methods put in situ in central China.

The number of confirmed cases globally stood at 28,275 as of Thursday, with quite 28,000 of these in China. the amount of cases in China grew by 3,694, or 15%, on the previous day. There are 565 deaths thus far, about two of which were in China, with one within the Philippines and one in Hong Kong.

Silenced by authorities

On an equivalent day in December that Li messaged his friends, an emergency notice was issued by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, informing the city's medical institutions that a series of patients from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market had "unknown pneumonia".

The notice warned: "Any organizations or individuals aren't allowed to release treatment information to the general public without authorization".

 

In the early hours of New Year's Eve, Wuhan's health authorities held an emergency meeting to debate the outbreak. Afterward, Li was summoned by officials at his hospital to elucidate how he knew about the cases, state-run newspaper Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Later that day, the Wuhan authorities announced the outbreak and alerted the planet Health Organization.

On January 3, Li was called to an area police headquarters and reprimanded for "spreading rumors online" and "severely disrupting social order" over the message he sent within the chat group.

I had to sign a press release -- which CNN has seen a photograph of -- acknowledging his "misdemeanor" and promising to not commit further "unlawful acts".

He feared he was getting to be detained. "My family would worry sick about me, if I lose my freedom for a couple of days," he told CNN over a text message on WeChat -- he was coughing an excessive amount of and breathing too poorly to talk over the phone.

He was released by police but returned to figure at Wuhan Central Hospital feeling helpless. He said: "There was nothing I could do. (Everything) has got to adhere to the official line".

 

On January 10, after unwittingly treating a patient with the Wuhan coronavirus, Li started coughing and developed a fever subsequent day. He was hospitalized on January 12. within the following days, Li's condition deteriorated so badly that he was admitted to the medical care unit, and given oxygen support. He later tested positive for coronavirus.