CHINESE NEO-VIRUS REACHES AMERICA
Man ill in Wash. state as global death toll hits nine
This is an evolving situation, and we do expect additional patients in the United States and globally. — Dr. Nancy Messonnier, CDC
The new virus sweeping across Asia has now made it to the United States, officials announced Tuesday — as the death toll rose to nine.
A Washington state man has been sickened by the new strain of coronavirus, which originated in China late last month, said officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The unidentified man — who is in his 30s and from Snohomish County, north of Seattle — returned last week from a trip to the outbreak’s epicenter in Wuhan, officials said.
He remains hospitalized at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Wash., in good condition and isn’t considered a threat to medical staff or the public, health officials said.
“The gentleman right now is very healthy,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the CDC. “This is an evolving situation and we do expect additional patients in the United States and globally,” she added.
The news came as the mayor of Wuhan announced Tuesday that nine people have now died from the virus in the city, where the outbreak is believed to have started around Dec. 31 at a food market.
Most of those who have died were age 60 or older and some had a previous medical condition.
The infected US resident, who traveled solo and lives alone, had no symptoms when he arrived at SeattleTacoma International Airport last Wednesday. The patient told doctors he had not visited the market in Wuhan or come into contact with anyone who was sickened.
He reached out to doctors Sunday when he started to feel sick — and after researching the coronavirus online, officials said.
“He was a very astute gentleman,” said Dr. Scott Lindquist, Washington state’s epidemiologist.
“He was looking at the Internet actively” and saw information about the virus and its spread.
Lab tests confirmed Monday that the patient had the Wuhan coronavirus, also called 2019-nCoV. He is expected to be monitored at the hospital until Thursday at least, officials said.
CDC officials sent a team to Washington state to track down anyone who many have come in contact with the man, including staff and patients at a clinic he visited and passengers on his flight.
Health officials said he had been in contact with only a small number of people.
Authorities had previously said the new strain seemed to be capable of spreading only from animals to humans.
But health officials on Monday confirmed that the virus can be transmitted from person to person.
The American patient returned two days before three major airports — JFK in New York, San Francisco International and Los Angeles International — began screening passengers for the virus.
More than 1,200 travelers have been screened since Friday, with no one yet referred to a hospital or
found to have the virus, according to The Washington Post.
The CDC announced Tuesday it would expand the screening of passengers to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Chicago O’Hare International over the next few days.
All travelers arriving in the United States from Wuhan will be funneled through those five airports, the CDC said. And anyone who is planning on coming in to another city will be issued new tickets taking them to one of the five hubs.
Travelers will be asked to fill out questionnaires about possible symptoms, like cough or fever and whether they visited meat or seafood markets in Wuhan.
Thermal scanners will be used to look for signs of fever. Anyone with symptoms will be examined further, as will relatives and travel partners.
Airports in Australia, Japan and South Korea have begun screening passengers from Wuhan. Officials have been using infrared thermometers on travelers since Jan. 14.
South Korea has reported one case of the virus, involving a Chinese traveler from Wuhan. Japan, Thailand and Taiwan all have also confirmed one or more cases. Officials in China said on Tuesday that there are now more than 300 confirmed cases across the country, according to the South China Morning Post.
The vast majority of those 309 cases is in Wuhan, but others have been diagnosed in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong province and Zhejiang.
The World Health Organization in Geneva will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday to determine whether the outbreak should be declared a global health crisis, as Zika was in 2016.
The coronavirus has caused alarm because of its genetic similarities to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which first infected people in southern China in late 2002 and spread to dozens of countries, killing nearly 800.
Experts say the new illness does not appear to be as deadly as SARS or MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), although viruses can sometimes mutate and become more dangerous.
David Veesler, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Washington, said the public ''should not be panicking right now.”
“In a couple of weeks, China was able to identify the virus, isolate it, sequence it and share that information,” he said, adding that the response so far has been “very efficient.” “We don’t have enough data to judge how severe the disease is.” Yet fears of the virus spreading ramped up across China on Tuesday, with an estimated 3 million people prepared to travel for the Lunar New Year, which begins Saturday. Several online retailers had sold out their supply of face masks — which were going for more than 10 times their original price. The Chinese government announced it was classifying the new outbreak in the same category as SARS, meaning mandatory isolation for those diagnosed with the disease and the potential to implement quarantine measures on travel. “I think this method is the best one, and it would be wise and effective if we move forward with this strategy,” Zhong Nanshan, an expert on communicable diseases who helped fight SARS, told the South China Morning Post. “At the moment, there is no effective drug for treatment for this new strain of coronavarius'