First U.S. case found of Chinese coronavirus

Man diagnosed as concerns rise over fast spread

A man in Washington state has been diagnosed with a mysterious virus that began last month in China, becoming the first case confirmed in the United States of an illness that has killed at least six people and sickened hundreds more, according to U.S. officials.

The man, in his 30s, is in stable condition at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Wash. Officials said they are monitoring him there out of an abundance of caution, not because he is seriously ill. The man arrived in the U.S. last week, before federal health officials began screening travellers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan at Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York’s John F. Kennedy international airports, the first such effort since the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

Washington state health officials said the man, a resident of Snohomish County, Wash., returned from a trip to the region around Wuhan, where the outbreak began. He arrived at the Seattle-area international airport Wednesday. Shortly afterward, he began feeling ill and contacted his doctor on Sunday.

CDC officials said they are expanding screening to international airports in Atlanta and Chicago. More than 1,200 travellers have been screened since Friday. Over the weekend, federal officials began redirecting travellers arriving on direct and indirect flights from Wuhan to airports screening for the new virus.

A small number of healthcare workers and patients who may have been exposed to the patient have been notified to watch for symptoms. Officials are tracing the people he may have come into contact with.

Nancy Messonnier, director of CDC’S National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Disease, said the risk to the general American population is low.

The outbreak has grown rapidly in recent days, with authorities in China confirming cases in multiple cities as hundreds of millions of people in China and elsewhere in Asia are on the move in the run-up to the Lunar New Year, the biggest migration event in the world. The infection is believed to have begun among people who shopped or worked at an animal market in Wuhan. But its rapid spread led officials to conclude that people and animals can transmit the infection.

Coronaviruses range from the common cold to much more serious diseases, according to the World Health Organization. The strain spreading in China is related to two other coronaviruses that have caused major outbreaks in recent years: Middle East respiratory syndrome, also known as MERS, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS.

The WHO is meeting Wednesday to decide whether to declare the outbreak is a public health emergency.