What Is Coronavirus and How Worried Should You Be About It?
A new type of viral disease was recently discovered in China, and the United States has just reported the first case in a traveler who recently arrived in Washington state. The virus associated with SARS and MERS is sometimes fatal.
Who got sick?
The first few affected people all shopped or worked at a seafood and live animal market in Wuhan , the capital of China’s Hubei province. They had pneumonia, fever and shortness of breath.
So far, six people have died and hundreds have become infected. People with the virus have traveled to other parts of China as well as other countries, including the first US case reported today.
What do we know about the virus?
We have his genome. The virus has been isolated and sequenced, and this is the coronavirus. Some coronaviruses cause mild colds, others more serious. If you remember SARS infections in China in 2003 or MERS in the Middle East (discovered in 2012), they were both coronaviruses.
The virus has no official name, but you can see how people call it “2019-nCoV”, which means “new coronavirus”. The virus was first discovered at the end of 2019.
At first, public health officials were unsure if the virus could be transmitted from person to person or if everyone contracted it from one of the animals on the market. But more recently, it became clear that people pass it on to each other, including medical professionals.
Since the virus is still very new, little is known about it, including how deadly it is. It appears to be less contagious than measles or the flu, but it’s enough that travelers get tested.
Can it spread to the US?
This may be why the CDC is keeping a close eye on this . They recently announced that they will screen passengers at three airports where people most often arrive from Wuhan: San Francisco (SFO), New York (JFK) and Los Angeles (LAX).
Tomorrow, the World Health Organization is holding an emergency meeting over the virus , where they will decide whether the outbreak should be viewed as a public health emergency, and if so, what action should be taken.
What should I do?
The CDC has issued a Level 2 (of 3) travel warning , which means we must “take heightened precautions.” If you go to Wuhan:
- Avoid contact with sick people, animal markets and any animals, living or dead.
- Wash your hands often.
- Be prepared to answer questions about your health and travel history when you return.
The CDC notes that “the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions” appear to be at the highest risk of serious illness and may want to rethink their travel plans.
Besides, we don’t know much. Expect CDC to publish additional information and possibly update travel alert as the situation evolves.