VLADIVOSTOK, February 4. /TASS/. Chinese medics will begin using coronavirus test program, developed in Russia’s Primorsky Region, for Wuhan patients in the upcoming days, says World Health Organization Programs Center Executive Secretary Viktor Fersht.
The number of confirmed coronavirus-induced pneumonia cases in China has exceeded 20,400 people. According to China’s regional health committees, the total number of lethal cases has exceeded 420.
"The [Chinese Non-Government Medical Institutions] Association has set up a control brigade, which went to the center of the epidemic. Five hundred doctors went to Wuhan and they will use the [Russian] system to diagnose and prescribe medication to the diseased Chinese people," Fersht said.
The Russian Academy of Sciences’ Far East Institute of Automation and Control Processes (IACP), supported by the Vladivostok University of Economics and Service - a WHO Programs Center member - have developed a system that will assist the doctors in diagnosing diseases and pick the optimal therapy.
According to the IACP Deputy Director Valeria Gribova, the system can diagnose various diseases, if precise data on the symptoms is entered.
"The China’s National Health Commission presented a document, describing how to diagnose the coronavirus infection, how to start treatment, depending on its form, using Chinese traditional medicine," Gribova said. "Using this document, we have developed [our] system."
IACP Laboratory of Intelligent Systems Senior Researcher Yelena Shalfeyeva explained that the system diagnostic precision and therapy suggestion correctness depend on how precise and elaborate the Chinese data on the coronavirus is.
"Our technology offers quality solutions that depend on quality knowledge. If the knowledge paper was high quality, then this knowledge will be interpreted correctly," Shalfeyeva said.
The 2019-nCoV coronavirus
On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, 2020, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent as coronavirus 2019-nCoV. This new strain of coronavirus has already been identified in another 23 countries, including Russia. The World Health Organization has recognized the pneumonia outbreak in China as an international emergency.