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he Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) have announced two new cases of novel coronavirus in the
United States, bringing the total to five across four states.
Share on PinterestThe affected
individuals had returned from Wuhan, a city in the Hubei province in China.
Recently, reports of a coronavirus
outbreak in the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei Province have flooded the
world’s news. The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) causes respiratory illness
of varying severity.
Initially, the authorities believed that viral transmission
was occurring solely from animal-to-human at a particular animal market in the
region. However, in many later cases, people had not had access to these markets,
making human-to-human transmission likely.
To date, 2019-nCoV has infected thousands of people in China, predominantly in the Hubei
province. Experts have linked about 80 deaths to
2019-nCoV, all in China.
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There are now a growing number of cases appearing in
countries outside of China, including Taiwan, Australia, Japan, France, Thailand,
Vietnam, and Nepal.
The identification of the first infection in the U.S. took
place on January 21 in the state of Washington. Now, the CDC have announced two new cases on U.S. soil, in Arizona and
California. Both of these individuals had recently returned from Wuhan, China,
and laboratory tests that the CDC carried out confirmed that they had
contracted 2019-nCoV. In the press release, the CDC write:
“CDC is leaning forward with an
aggressive public health response strategy and working closely with state and
local public health authorities to identify potential cases early and make sure
patients get the best and most appropriate care.”
Human infection with coronaviruses is common, but they usually cause nothing more than a cold. A
range of animals are also susceptible to coronaviruses, but these viruses do
not tend to transmit to humans.
However, in some cases, an animal coronavirus can jump from
animal to human. For instance, the viruses that caused the severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003 and the Middle East respiratory
syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2012.
It is not yet clear how virulent 2019-nCoV might be.
The CDC explain that “reported illnesses have ranged from
infected people with little to no symptoms to people being severely ill and
dying.”
Symptoms include fever, a cough, and shortness of breath.
In more severe cases, the infection can lead to pneumonia. Symptoms might begin
as soon as 2 days after infection, or they could take as long as 2 weeks to
appear.
The CDC expect that more cases will appear in the U.S. over
the coming days and weeks. They write that “[w]hile this is a serious public
health threat, CDC continues to believe the immediate risk to the U.S. general
public is low at this time.”
They underline the fact that “risk is dependent on
exposure.” The CDC have published guidance for people who work in healthcare settings and
might encounter individuals with the virus. They have also published
separate guidelines for people who have the infection and those
with whom they live.
Unsurprisingly, the CDC recommend that people avoid
traveling to Hubei province unless it is entirely necessary. Overall, though,
the CDC are asking for calm:
“For the general public, no
additional precautions are recommended at this time beyond the simple daily
precautions that everyone should always take. It is currently flu and
respiratory disease season, and flu activity is still high and expected to
continue for a number of weeks. CDC recommends getting a flu vaccine, taking
everyday preventive actions to stop the spread of germs, and taking flu
antivirals if prescribed.”
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