VIRUS FEARS HIT OHIO
Miami U tests ailing students as US beefs up screening for new illness from China
College officials in Ohio are responding to the scary new virus from China by alerting students to the threat and advising them to follow general tips for avoiding illness, such as regularly washing hands. Some have canceled events.
There have been no confirmed cases in Ohio of the infectious illness, but fears grew Tuesday in Oxford, home of Miami University, as health officials awaited the results of coronavirus tests on two students.
The two students returned to Miami over the weekend from a trip to China during the university’s January break. One of the students, a Chinese national, visited the university’s Student Health Service complaining of flulike symptoms.
The student and his traveling companion have now been tested for the coronavirus and instructed to stay home. Butler County health officials said the students were feeling better Tuesday. Test results from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the only agency with the facilities to run tests for the illness, won’t be available for about a week.
Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health, spoke at a news conference on campus Tuesday as officials tried to calm fears there, especially after Miami men’s and women’s basketball games were postponed due to the concerns.
“We are on it," Acton said. "We stand prepared."
Acton said only those who have traveled to China or been in direct contact with someone recently returning from China are "truly at risk."
Health officials advised Miami students and faculty to take precautions that are customary in flu season, including washing hands with soap and hot water and coughing or sneezing into an elbow. Wearing masks is not necessary.
Symptoms are similar to other respiratory viruses and include fever, coughing, shortness of breath, headache and nausea.
More than 132 deaths have been attributed to the illness worldwide, and officials in China — Wuhan is the epicenter of this latest coronavirus — say more than 6,000 cases have been reported on the mainland and abroad. But while U.S. health officials said Tuesday they're expanding screenings of international travelers and taking other precautions, they insist the risk to Americans is very low.
“At this point, Americans should not worry for their own safety,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters Tuesday in Washington. Only five cases of the new strain of coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States to date, but officials are reviewing 110 potential cases. The five confirmed cases all had traveled to the hardest-hit part of China.
The CDC has been screening for illness among passengers arriving from the epicenter of China's outbreak at five U.S. airports. But people who've visited other parts of China still may be arriving after stops in other places first. Now, the CDC is sending extra staff to other “quarantine stations” to screen arrivals at a total of 18 airports and at two border crossings, in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego.
Airport screenings were initially done in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta. That has been expanded to Anchorage, Alaska; Boston; Dallas; Detroit; El Paso; Honolulu; Houston; Miami; Minneapolis; Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia; San Diego; Seattle; Washington, D.C. (Dulles); and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Azar said he has directed $105 million to fight the outbreak. Among the next steps, the CDC developed a test for the virus and aims to make it usable by state health departments, to speed diagnosis of suspected cases. Research also is under way to develop a vaccine or treatment.
A team at Ohio State University has been tracking coronavirus updates for two to three weeks, said Dr. Andy Thomas, chief clinical officer at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center. That team sent communications to clinicians, university leadership and the campus community last week and over the weekend, in part to "reduce fear and panic," he said.so far, Ohio State has received some questions from the campus community, Thomas said."we've probably had a half-dozen patients come to the emergency department, none of whom actually qualified," Thomas said, noting those patients did not exhibit the symptoms of coronavirus nor did they have travel histories to cause concern. "We've not had anyone even rise to the level of where Miami is today," he said.
At the University of Akron, the Confucius Institute announced Tuesday afternoon that it was canceling its annual Chinese New Year Gala, set for this Friday, due to concerns about the coronavirus.
The annual gala was expected to have 300 to 400 guests and performers, but the institute has been made aware that there are concerns among the Chinese community and feedback that guests may not attend the gala, said Nancy Wolfe Dwyer, assistant to the director and event coordinator with the institute. The event may be rescheduled.
The university has 187 students from China.
Denison University in Granville and Capital University in Bexley sent out emails about the illness to their university communities Tuesday. In Delaware, Ohio Wesleyan University officials said a student completing study abroad this semester in both China and Spain was in Shanghai on Tuesday, but she was scheduled to leave soon, school spokesman Cole Hatcher said.
The student, a junior studying astrophysics, is to finish the China portion of her study online and move to Europe before finishing her semester in Madrid, Hatcher said.
Meanwhile, an airplane evacuating as many as 240 Americans from Wuhan departed Wednesday before dawn and was en route to the U.S., a State Department official said.the U.S. government chartered the plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in Wuhan and other U.S. citizens. The plane will make a refueling stop in Alaska before flying on to Ontario, California, the U.S. Embassy in China has said.
Asked if those evacuees would be quarantined, Azar said there are doctors on the flight to check all the passengers so health officials can decide whether additional steps are needed.