The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first U.S. case of novel coronavirus.
Identified only as a Washington state man in his 30s, the patient recently returned from Wuhan, China, where an outbreak of pneumonia caused by the virus has taken nine lives (and counting).
Upon arrival in Washington on Jan. 15, the patient reported feeling ill; he visited a local medical center, where, based on his travel history and symptoms, doctors suspected the new coronavirus.
A specimen collected and overnighted to the CDC confirmed the diagnosis.
“This is not a moment of high anxiety,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said during a press conference, as reported by Reuters.
The patient, listed in satisfactory condition at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Wash., is not known to have infected anyone else.
“This is a low risk,” Inslee continued. “It appears to have a transmission vector that really should not prevent anyone from going anywhere in Snohomish County, except maybe the isolation ward at the hospital.”
Identified in December, novel coronavirus, which circulates among people and animals (including bats, cats, and camels), was linked to a wholesale animal and fish market in Wuhan, the largest city in central China.
The market has since been shut down.
As with SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), animal coronaviruses can evolve and infect humans, spreading between people.
Exactly how the novel coronavirus spreads—animal-to-person or person-to-person—remains unclear.
As of press time, there have been 470 confirmed cases of 2019-nCoV across Asia (concentrated mostly in mainland China), and one in the US. The disease has so far claimed nine lives.
“While severe illness … has been reported in China, other patients have had milder illness and been discharged,” the CDC said, adding that the risk to the American public “remains low at this time.”
Novel coronavirus symptoms include fever, cough, and trouble breathing—which are also handily associated with chest infection, bronchitis, pneumonia, and a number of other diagnoses.
Some 60,000 to 65,000 people travel from Wuhan to the United States every year, especially during January’s Chinese New Year celebrations.
The CDC has begun screening arriving passengers at San Francisco (SFO), New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), Atlanta (ATL), and Chicago (ORD) airports.
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