The fight against the new coronavirus represents a battle against the unknown for doctors. How does it attack the body? What are all the symptoms? Who is more likely to fall seriously ill or die?

Below, an account of the doctors at the forefront of this epidemic at Jinyintan hospital in Wuhan is starting to provide answers.

A detailed analysis of the first 99 patients treated was published in the Lancet medical journal.

LUNG ATTACK

All 99 patients taken to hospital had pneumonia. Their lungs were inflamed and the small pockets where oxygen moves from air to blood filled with water.

Other symptoms were:

- 82 had a fever

- 81 had a cough

- 31 were short of breath

- 11 had muscle pain

- 9 had dizziness

- 8 had headaches

- 5 had sore throats

FIRST DEAD

The first two patients who died were apparently healthy, even though they were longtime smokers and this would have weakened their lungs. The first, a 61-year-old man, had severe pneumonia on arrival at the hospital. He was in acute respiratory distress, which means that his lungs were unable to supply enough oxygen to his organs to keep his body alive. Despite being put on a respirator, his lungs gave way and his heart stopped beating. He died 11 days after hospitalization. The second patient, a 69-year-old man, also suffered from acute respiratory distress syndrome. It was attached to an artificial lung or an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, but this was not enough. He died of severe pneumonia and septic shock when his blood pressure collapsed.

AT LEAST 10% DIE

As of January 25, of the 99 patients:

- 57 were still in the hospital

- 31 had been discharged

- 11 had died

This does not mean that the disease's death rate is 11%, although some of the patients who are still in the hospital may still die.

PLACE OF ORIGIN

Live animals sold at the Huanan seafood market are believed to be the source of the infection, called 2019-nCoV. And 49 of the 99 patients had a direct connection with the market:

47 worked there, both as managers and as stalls employees 2 were occasional buyers.

MIDDLE-AGED MEN MOST AFFECTED

Most of the 99 patients were middle-aged gentlemen, with an average age of 56 years and 67 of them were men. However, more recent data suggest a more homogeneous gender division. Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 1.2 men were infected for every 1.0 women.

There are two possible explanations for the difference:

- Men may be more likely to get seriously ill and need hospital treatment.

- Or simply men for social or cultural reasons may have been more exposed to the virus at the beginning of the epidemic.

Dr. Li Zhang, at the hospital, says that:

"The reduced susceptibility of females to viral infections could be attributed to protection from the X chromosome and sex hormones, which play an important role in immunity."

Patients who were not already in good health Most of the 99 people who died had other diseases that may have made them more vulnerable to the virus.

Thanks everyone for reading.