Incubation period as part of the case definition of severe respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus

H Nishiura; K Mizumoto; M Ejima; Y Zhong; B J Cowling; R Omori

doi:10.2807/ese.17.42.20296-en

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Incubation period as part of the case definition of severe respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus
H Nishiura^1,2 , K Mizumoto^1,3 , M Ejima^1,4 , Y Zhong¹ , B J Cowling¹ , R Omori¹
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Affiliations: ¹ School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China ² PRESTO (Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology), Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan ³ Institute of Tropical Medicine and the Global Center of Excellence Program, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan ⁴ Department of Mathematical Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Correspondence:
H Nishiura
nishiura hku.hk
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Citation style for this article: Nishiura H, Mizumoto K, Ejima M, Zhong Y, Cowling B J, Omori R. Incubation period as part of the case definition of severe respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus. Euro Surveill. 2012;17(42):pii=20296. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.17.42.20296-en Received: 11 Oct 2012

Abstract

Non-specific symptoms of acute respiratory viral infections make it difficult for many countries without ongoing transmission of a novel coronavirus to rule out other possibilities including influenza before isolating imported febrile individuals with a possible exposure history. The incubation period helps differential diagnosis, and up to two days is suggestive of influenza. It is worth including the incubation period in the case definition of novel coronavirus infection.