The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
VIRUS NOW A GLOBAL EMERGENCY
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak sparked by a new virus in China that has been exported to more than a dozen countries as a global emergency Thursday after the number of cases spiked tenfold in a week.
NUMBER OF INFECTED PEOPLE SPIKES MORE THAN TENFOLD IN A WEEK
What happened Thursday
The U.N. health agency defines an international emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.
China first informed WHO about cases of the new virus in late December. To date, China has reported more than 7,800 cases, including 170 deaths. Eighteen other countries have since reported cases, as scientists race to understand how exactly the virus is spreading and how severe it is.
Meanwhile, the United States and South Korea confirmed their first cases of person-to-person spread of the virus. The man in the U.S. is married to a 60-year-old Chicago woman who got sick from the virus after she returned from a trip to Wuhan, the Chinese city that is the epicenter of the outbreak.
There have been cases reported of the infectious virus spreading to others in a household or workplace in China and elsewhere. The case in South Korea was a 56-yearold man who had contact with a patient who was diagnosed with the new virus earlier.
Experts say there is significant evidence the virus is spreading among people in China and have noted concern about human-to-human transmission in other countries.
The case in France is a doctor who was in contact with a patient with the new virus and later became infected himself. The doctor is now being treated in an isolated room at a Paris hospital. Outbreak specialists worry that the spread of new viruses from patients to health workers can signal thevirus is becoming adapted to human transmission.
What does a global declaration mean?
A declaration of a global emergency typically brings greater money and resources but may also prompt nervous governments to restrict travel and trade to affected countries. The announcement also imposes more disease reporting requirements on countries.
On Thursday, China raised the death toll to 170, and more countries reported infections, including some spread locally, as foreign evacuees from China’s worst-hit region returned home to medical tests and even isolation.
Russia announced it was closing its 2,600-mile border with China, joining Mongolia and North Korea in barring crossings to guard against a new viral outbreak. It had been de facto closed because of the Lunar New Year holiday, but Russian authorities said the closure would be extended until March 1.
Train traffic between the countries was halted except for one train connecting Moscow and Beijing, but air traffic between the two countries continued, at least for now. Russia has not confirmed any cases of the virus.
How it compares to SARS
The new virus has now infected more in China than were sickened there in the 2002-03 outbreak of SARS, a cousin of the new virus.
To date, about 99% of cases are in China. The death rate of the new virus was estimated at 2%. With fluctuating numbers of cases and deaths, scientists can only produce a rough estimate of the fatality rate, and it’s likely many milder cases of the virus are being missed.
In comparison, the SARS virus killed about 10% of people who caught it. The new virus is from the coronavirus family, which includes those that can cause the common cold as well as more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.