Boca, not Ebola

Recently, there have been media reports: Shenzhen Airport Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has detected a Bocavirus patient among flight incoming personnel from Bangkok, Thailand. This is the first case of the virus detected at Shenzhen Airport. Boca virus, This is a name that is unfamiliar to medical professionals. As a result, many people look at the text and associate the virus with the Ebola virus that is raging in Africa and has spread to the United States and Europe. But in fact, the difference between Boca virus and Ebola virus is as big as the difference between Audi and Altman. Apart from the similar names, the two are quite different in terms of disease, mortality and transmission routes.

Past lives of Boca Virus

In 2005, In a large-scale screening of respiratory tract infection samples from children, A new virus was found. Because the gene sequence of the virus is similar to that of bovine bocavirus and canine parvovirus, it was named Human bocavirus. After that, researchers from various countries also carried out research projects on bocavirus and isolated human bocavirus from clinical children respiratory tract samples.

Has Boca virus ever appeared in China?

In fact, this is not the first time Boca virus has appeared in China. In 2006, Liu Jinsong of Chenzhou City in Hunan Province and Qu Xiaowang of China Disease Center and others found 6 cases of Bocavirus in China for the first time in the gene detection of nasopharyngeal aspirates collected from 72 hospitalized children with acute respiratory infection in 2005. The positive rate was 8.3%. In September 2012, There are also media reports that four cases of Boca virus infection were found at Futian, Huanggang and Shenzhen Bay ports in Shenzhen within a month, but they did not attract widespread public attention at that time. The Boca virus case found in Shenzhen is only the first case of the virus detected at Shenzhen Airport Port, and even the first case in Shenzhen is not considered.

Is Boca virus strong?

Since Boca virus was discovered less than 10 years ago, At present, there are not many papers. However, according to the existing clinical research data, Boca virus is really weak compared with Ebola virus. According to reports and documents from various countries, The positive detection rate in patients with clinical lower respiratory tract infection symptoms can reach 5.0% ~ 5.5%. The age of patients is generally under 8 years old, The peak of infection occurred between 1 and 30 months after birth. Most of the external symptoms of the patients are fever, dry cough, dyspnea, mild asthma, etc. of unknown causes. Most other physiological indexes are not abnormal, The damage to the respiratory system has no sequelae, There have been no reports of deaths from illness. Generally speaking, We don’t know much about Boca virus, Even at present, there is no good research result to prove the direct causal relationship between human boca virus and pathogenicity. However, this is not the reason for our fear. Believing in professional organizations, developing good living habits and hygiene habits, and not spreading erroneous information on friends or microblogs are the proper attitudes we should face the disease.