According to sources, a top Chinese government-appointed expert says a new respiratory illness that has killed at least three people can be transmitted by humans. Simply put, the coronavirus has killed at least three and sickened more than 200. Unfortunately, a prominent Chinese scientist says the virus is now capable of spreading from human to human, adding even more fears to the public.
Millions of Chinese are traveling this week for the Lunar New Year holiday. Which means, adding to fears that the virus could spread swiftly and on a broader scale. Therefore, experts said the severity of the outbreak would now depend on how many people, on average, a person with virus could infect.
“There are now sufficient cases that it’s not going to die out by chance,” said Neil Ferguson, a public health expert at Imperial College London who has studied the new virus. “The real question now is, how efficiently can this virus spread from person to person?”
Fortunately, human coronaviruses are common throughout the world. Namely, seven different coronaviruses, that scientists know of, can infect people and make them sick. Also, some human coronaviruses were identified many years ago and some have been identified recently. Anyhow, human coronaviruses commonly cause mild to moderate illness in people worldwide. Two newer human coronaviruses, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, have been known to frequently cause severe illness.
Furthermore, human coronaviruses can sometimes cause lower-respiratory tract illnesses, such as pneumonia or bronchitis. So, this is more common in people with cardiopulmonary disease, people with weakened immune systems, infants, and older adults.
Simply speaking, your healthcare provider may order laboratory tests on respiratory specimens and serum (part of your blood) to detect human coronaviruses. Namely, laboratory testing is more likely to be used if you have severe disease or are suspected of having MERS.
If you are experiencing symptoms, you should tell your healthcare provider about any recent travel or contact with animals. Therefore, most MERS-CoV infections have been reported from countries in the Arabian Peninsula. Therefore, reporting a travel history or contact with camels or camel products is very important when trying to diagnose MERS.
While the virus already killed 100 people, the only question left is ”Will the coronavirus spread to the US”. Luckily, we are still not familiar with the reported case of the coronavirus in the US.
However, that doesn’t have to be the case since the virus is not that easy to spot. Simply speaking, we know that it’s easily trasmitted by humans. Therefore, it’s only a matter of time when someone from the US start showing symptoms.
Also, people from Wuhan, American citizens, are on the way to the US which opens up new problems and questions.
Is someone infected?
Will they infect more people?
How can we stop this?
Well, the only thing that’s certain as of now is that American citizens from Wuhan are coming. Also, most of them will come to California on the Wednesday morning.
Source and more information located on the CDC site.