Health Officials Keep an Eye on the Coronavirus Outbreak
Posted on 01/22/2020
Officials with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are trying to combat the Chinese coronavirus that has already sickened 400 people and killed at least 17, according to various media reports. The coronavirus is a pneumonia-like disease. The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) confirmed that they are in the very early stages of developing a vaccine to combat the Wuhan coronavirus. The disease is transmissible between humans. U.S. federal health officials said a man in his 30s who recently went to Wuhan and is back in Seattle is infected. The patient is a resident of the U.S. and is in stable condition and is isolated at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) remains concerned that Chinese health officials have not released basic epidemiological data about the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. This (new) coronavirus (termed “2019-nCoV”) that was first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China and which continues to expand.
In Wuhan, the government suspended all public transportation, buses, trains, airplanes, and ferries. Wuhan authorities started to quarantined the entire city. Chinese top government officials warned lower-level officials to not cover up any spread of the coronavirus. Experts believe the virus started at the animal and seafood market in Wuhan.
The Chinese government is trying to get on top of this after the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak of 2002-2003, which at least 770 deaths. The coronavirus is part of the family of viruses that also caused the SARS outbreak.
Common steps for health officials:
1. Realize the outbreak
2. Isolate the virus
3. Sequence
4. Share data
Medics confirm the disease can be spread by COUGHING.
UPDATED – January 23, 2020
The Beijing government cancelled celebrations of Chinese New Year due to the outbreak.
Ex-China Countries reporting cases of the virus: Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, United Kingdom, Scotland (part of U.K), Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
According to an updated CDC page on January 22, 2020, “Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some causing illness in people and others that circulate among animals, including camels, cats and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can evolve and infect people and then spread between people such as has been seen with MERS and SARS. When person-to-person spread has occurred with SARS and MERS, it is thought to have happened via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how influenza and other respiratory pathogens spread. Spread of SARS and MERS between people has generally occurred between close contacts. Past MERS and SARS outbreaks have been complex, requiring comprehensive public health responses.”
