Thread: US gets 1st case of mysterious new Chinese illness

US gets 1st case of mysterious new Chinese illness

[People wear face masks as they ride an escalator at the Hong Kong International Airport in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. Face masks sold out and temperature checks at airports and train stations became the new norm as China strove Tuesday to control the outbreak of a new coronavirus that has reached four other countries and territories and threatens to spread further during the Lunar New Year travel rush. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)


The U.S. has its first case of a new virus that was found only last month in China, and health officials say they expect to see more around the world in the coming days

By CARLA K. JOHNSON AND MIKE STOBBEASSOCIATED PRESS

JAN. 21, 2020 11:52 AM

SEATTLE — The U.S. on Tuesday reported its first case of a new and potentially deadly virus circulating in China, saying a Washington state resident who returned last week from the outbreak’s epicenter was hospitalized in good condition near Seattle.

The man, identified only as a Snohomish County resident is in his 30s, was not considered a threat to medical staff or the public, health officials said.

The virus has infected about 300 people, all of whom had been in China, and killed six.

The newly discovered virus can cause coughing, fever, breathing difficulty and pneumonia.

Airports in the U.S. and other countries have stepped up monitoring, checking passengers from China for signs of illness.

The U.S. is the fifth country to report seeing the illness, following China, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.

Late last week, U.S. health officials began screening passengers from Wuhan in central China, where the outbreak began, at three U.S. airports — New York City’s Kennedy airport and the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports. On Tuesday, the CDC announced it will add Chicago’s O’Hare airport and Atlanta’s airport to the mix later this week.

What’s more, officials will begin forcing all passengers that originate in Wuhan to go to one of those five airports if they wish to enter the U.S.
Officials around the world have implemented similar airport screenings in hopes of containing the virus during the busy Lunar New Year travel season.

The U.S. resident had no symptoms when he arrived at the Seattle-Tacoma airport last Wednesday, but he contacted doctors on Sunday when he started feeling ill, officials said.

Last month, doctors began seeing the new virus in people who got sick after spending time at a food market in Wuhan. More than 275 cases of the newly identified coronavirus have been confirmed in China, most of them in Wuhan, according to the World Health Organization.

The count includes six deaths — all in China, most of them age 60 or older, including at least some who had a previous medical condition.

Officials have said it probably spread from animals to people, but this week Chinese officials said they’ve concluded it also can spread from person to person.

Health authorities this month identified the germ behind the outbreak as a new type of coronavirus.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some of which cause the common cold; others found in bats, camels and other animals have evolved into more severe illnesses.

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, belongs to the coronavirus family, but Chinese state media say the illness in Wuhan is different from coronaviruses that have been identified in the past. Earlier laboratory tests ruled out SARS and MERS — Middle East respiratory syndrome — as well as influenza, bird flu, adenovirus and other common lung-infecting germs.

The new virus so far does not appear to be as deadly as SARS and MERS, but viruses can sometimes mutate to become more dangerous.

University of Washington coronavirus researcher David Veesler said the public “should not be panicking right now.”

The response has been “very efficient,” Veesler said. “In a couple of weeks, China was able to identify the virus, isolate it, sequence it and share that information.”

Veesler added: “We don’t have enough data to judge how severe the disease is.”

The CDC’s Dr. Nancy Messonnier said health officials expected to see more cases in the U.S. and around the world in the coming days.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...hinese-illness

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BREAKING NEWS

CDC confirms first US case of Wuhan coronavirus

China Virus Death Toll Rises to 9 as First Case Found in U.S.

January 21, 2020

Bloomberg News



China will start nationwide screening to tackle the growing outbreak of a new respiratory virus, with hundreds of millions set to travel during the looming Lunar New Year holiday.

Officials are stepping up the monitoring of transportation links in China as the death toll increased to nine from six previously, the National Health Commission said in a briefing in Beijing Wednesday. There have been 440 confirmed cases across 13 provinces as of Jan. 21, and 1,394 patients are under medical observation, the commission said.

Health officials around the world are racing to control the SARS-like virus that emerged in Wuhan, a city in central China, last month. Confirmed cases have stretched to five additional countries, including the first diagnosis in the U.S. -- a resident of Snohomish, Washington state. Macau on Wednesday also reported its first case.




Travellers in protective masks at the Daxing international airport in Beijing on Jan. 21.

Photogragrapher: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

While China said it’s reacting at the highest levels to the outbreak and pledged daily updates and full information-sharing, officials acknowledged that they’re still grappling to understand the pathogen, which has infected multiple medical workers despite heavy protective gear.

“We are still on a learning curve,” said Gao Fu, head of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “The disease will continue to develop.” It has already changed from the early stages of detection, he said in the briefing.

The World Health Organization will decide Wednesday whether to declare the virus an international public health emergency, a designation used for complex epidemics that can cross borders.

At Wednesday’s briefing, China said it had seen no evidence yet of “super spreaders,” infected people who pass on the disease rapidly to many other people, but could not rule out that some would emerge. Super spreaders played a key role in the SARS pandemic 17 years ago, which killed almost 800 people and hurt economies across the region.


Tracking Patients

As they did during the SARS and Ebola outbreaks, health officials and scientists globally are tracking patients and testing samples of saliva and other fluids to determine the exact cause and severity of their ailments. They’re identifying and monitoring people with whom the patients were in contact to see if the virus is spreading easily from person to person. And they are placing restrictions on travel to try to limit the exposure to scores of new people.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded its inspection of airline passengers who had spent time in China to airports in Atlanta and Chicago on Tuesday, building on the 1,200 people who had been screened in California and New York over the weekend. No new cases were uncovered.

“This is an evolving situation,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “We do expect additional cases in the United States and globally.”


Pneumonia Threat Widens

Conoravirus, first detected in China, has emerged in at least six other locations
Sources: National and municipal health authorities
Note: Number of cases as of 11 a.m. Hong Kong time


Chinese officials on Wednesday said that Wuhan, a city of 11 million people at the center of the outbreak, has been placed under heavy supervision. Chinese citizens from elsewhere should not go to the city unless necessary, and public gatherings through the holiday period have been canceled, while tour groups have been banned from leaving.


Officials also urged Chinese citizens to open the windows to ventilate their homes, wash their hands regularly and wear protective masks.

The coronavirus symptoms include fever, cough or chest tightness, and difficulty breathing.

— With assistance by Dong Lyu
(Adds Macau case in third paragraph)



https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s?srnd=premium

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