BUG LANDS IN U.S.
CDC: Yank who visited China has Wuhan virus
A Washington State man who recently traveled to China has been diagnosed with the Wuhan coronavirus, marking the first confirmed U.S. case of a mysterious new infection that has killed at least six people and sickened hundreds of others across Asia, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The patient, who was described as a Snohomish County resident in his 30s, is in good condition and “very healthy,” but he has been isolated at a Seattle-area hospital as an abundance of caution, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters in a phone briefing.
The man returned last Wednesday from a trip to Wuhan, the Chinese city where the potentially deadly infection first emerged in December, and did not present any symptoms until the following day, officials said. He had taken a nondirect flight to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and arrived two days before the U.S. began screening travelers at several international airports, according to the CDC.
Officials said the patient “proactively” contacted health providers to tell them he’d been to the outbreak’s epicenter and has been fully cooperative since.
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the risk to the public is low, but she noted that authorities are still investigating how easily the newly discov“We ered virus can spread. know that today’s news is concerning,” she said. “This is an evolving situation, and we do expect additional cases in the U.S. and globally.”
Besides mainland China, the outbreak has reached the Chinese territory of Taiwan and three other Asian countries — Thailand, Japan and South Korea — leading airports around the globe to implement new security measures.
The virus can cause coughing, fever, breathing difficulty and pneumonia. Messonnier said older adults with underlying medical conditions or compromised immune systems appear to be more vulnerable. All six deaths have been reported in China and most of those people were 60 or older.
The U.S. began screening passengers last week at Kennedy Airport and the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports. The CDC announced Tuesday that Chicago’s O’Hare and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airports will also began screening travelers this week, while anyone returning from Wuhan will have to go to one of those five airports to enter the U.S.
Authorities initially believed the outbreak may have originated from contact between humans and animals because the first cases are linked to a large seafood and animal market in Wuhan, a city of 11 million in central China. However, the Chinese government confirmed Monday that the new virus can spread from human to human, adding to growing fears of a massive outbreak and its potential impact on the economy.