The coronavirus has landed on U.S. soil.
A man who returned to the U.S. last week from China was diagnosed with the new and potentially deadly strain of coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus was responsible for at least 17 deaths in Central China as of Wednesday. The man in the U.S. is in his 30s and is in good condition at a hospital in Everett, outside Seattle, the CDC said.
The outbreak — which has infected at least 571 people, including in Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea — is believed to have originated in the Wuhan area, likely at a food market. “We are at the very early stages of developing a vaccine to combat the Wuhan coronavirus,” Kathy Stover, the branch chief for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Fox News.
The pneumonia-causing virus has spread in China, helped by the country’s Lunar New Year holiday, which begins Friday. “This is the wild card,” the Associated Press reported. “People unfamiliar with China have trouble understanding the immense travel phenomenon that occurs during Lunar New Year, when, over a one-month period, some 3 billion people are on the move, many returning to their home towns and regions but others vacationing. Peak travel occurs this week.”
The virus has spread in China, helped by the country’s Lunar New Year holiday.
In an effort to stem the spread of the virus from its suspected origin, Wuhan officials said they had temporarily closed the region’s outgoing airport and railway stations, and suspend all public transport.
Another reason for the rapid spread: While some people are canceling travel plans in China and opting to stay home over the holiday period, others may not yet have experienced the worst of the symptoms, believe themselves to be well enough to travel and/or could be reluctant to pay up to $400 to change a flight — especially if they believe they merely have a common cold. In fact, previous iterations of the coronavirus are very similar to a common cold.
People may not know they’re carrying the virus, and doctors don’t yet know how long it takes to develop. “If you knew the incubation period, you could do quarantining of people who are in close contact with infected patients,” Melissa Nolan, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, told The Wall Street Journal. “You would monitor those people for the incubation period.” Symptoms include a runny nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever and a general feeling of being unwell, according to the CDC.
Previous iterations of the coronavirus are very similar to a common cold.
But more severe coronaviruses can become more serious and progress to pneumonia. “Human coronaviruses can sometimes cause lower-respiratory tract illnesses, such as pneumonia or bronchitis,” it added. “This is more common in people with cardiopulmonary disease, people with weakened immune systems, infants, and older adults. Two other human coronaviruses, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV have been known to frequently cause severe symptoms.”
Nasty bugs like coronaviruses can last for days on objects. The sinister sounding Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (more commonly known as MRSA) lasted longest (168 hours) on material from a seat-back pocket while the bacteria Escherichia coli O157:H7 (also known as E.coli, which can cause kidney problems) survived longest (96 hours) on the material from the armrest of planes, according to research presented in 2014 to the American Society for Microbiology.
In an attempt to remain competitive and profitable, airlines have increased their turnaround times in recent years. Many budget airlines, for example, have reduced turnaround times to 25 minutes by removing the seat pockets. Other airlines have managed to have long-haul turnaround times of 90 minutes. Not only do planes get new plane load of passengers, they often get a completely different crew. Deep cleans are not always possible during such turnarounds, which could aid in the transmission of the coronavirus.
Office workers pick up 30% to 50% of the organisms that are left on surfaces.
After flying, most people take public transport. You may avoid stainless steel poles on subways and buses, but do you touch turnstiles and ticket machines? They are arguably touched by even more people, says Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona. Commuters are 6 times more likely to develop an acute respiratory infection if they traveled recently by bus or tram, a 2011 published in the BMC Journal of Infectious Diseases concluded.
What can you do? Aisle seats will be touched most often by other people as they’re trying to find their own, Gerba says. In 2008, members of a tour group experienced diarrhea and vomiting in an airplane flight from Boston to Los Angeles. Other passengers who suffered secondary infections were either sitting next to those infected — or unsuspecting passengers seated in aisle seats, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
We may move away if we see someone sneeze at the water cooler or on a train, but touching objects is a faster way to transmit viruses, Gerba says. He recommends using hand sanitizers or disinfectant wipes, particularly at the office where people may be reluctant to stay home if they’re sick. One 2014 study, presented at an American Society for Microbiology meeting in Washington, D.C., office workers pick up 30% to 50% of the organisms that are left on surfaces.
In the meantime, travelers to China should wear a surgical mask in crowded areas and avoid eating game meat. “Avoid wet markets selling game meat and live poultry,” David Hui, chairman of the department of medicine and therapeutics and director of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told MarketWatch. “More infections are expected in other provinces and cities and other countries during the Chinese New Year holiday.”
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