It’s a new disease, never before seen, and spreading fast. We believe it’s spread began at the beginning of December. It operates in a similar fashion to SARS and MERS, which are also CoronaViruses. It’s spreading quickly, and there have been multiple fatalities. I’m going to be live updating this article with everything I know and can confirm on the Wuhan CoronaVirus.
Official Designation: 2019-nCoV
Known Fatalities: 41
W.H.O Emergency Status: Undeclared
Regions affected:
- China
- Japan
- Hong Kong
- Macau
- Taiwan
- Vietnam
- Thailand
- S. Korea
- Singapore
- United States (Washington State)
What is a CoronaVirus?
A Corona Virus is a type virus that causes an Upper Respiratory Infection. It is a common virus, and most people infected never know they have something other than a common cold. Most are not dangerous at all.
Who is the Wuhan Corona Virus killing?
Current reports show that while the Corona Virus is lethal, it is most dangerous to the elderly, and people with underlying conditions.
What Are Signs and symptoms of Wuhan CoronaVirus?
According to the CDC, the Wuhan Virus has all the signs and symptoms of a common cold: coughing, fever, and difficulty breathing. Development of pneumonia is possible.
How is Corona Virus Spreading?
According to the CDC, the virus is spreading through human to human contact, but it is believed to be an animal borne illness originally.
How to Prevent infection?
If the outbreak should spread to the United States in a serious capacity, a few precautions are necessary (precautions will be updated as necessary to reflect potential airborne or droplet precautions):
- Avoid contact with those infected.
- Avoid animals, animal markets, and uncooked meat products.
- Wash your hands religiously, for 20 seconds minimum, with soap and water.
Is there a vaccine?
There is no vaccine at this time, although I have heard reports of a vaccine in development.
What is MERS?
Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus as described by the World Health Organization:
- “Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS‐CoV) that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
- Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
- Typical MERS symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Pneumonia is common, but not always present. Gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhoea, have also been reported. Some laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection are reported as asymptomatic, meaning that they do not have any clinical symptoms, yet they are positive for MERS-CoV infection following a laboratory test. Most of these asymptomatic cases have been detected following aggressive contact tracing of a laboratory-confirmed case.
- Approximately 35% of reported patients with MERS-CoV infection have died.
- Although most of human cases of MERS-CoV infections have been attributed to human-to-human infections in health care settings, current scientific evidence suggests that dromedary camels are a major reservoir host for MERS-CoV and an animal source of MERS infection in humans. However, the exact role of dromedaries in transmission of the virus and the exact route(s) of transmission are unknown.
- The virus does not seem to pass easily from person to person unless there is close contact, such as occurs when providing unprotected care to a patient. Health care associated outbreaks have occurred in several countries, with the largest outbreaks seen in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the Republic of Korea.”
What is SARS?
As described again by the WHO:
“SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) – virus identified in 2003. SARS-CoV is thought to be an animal virus from an as-yet-uncertain animal reservoir, perhaps bats, that spread to other animals (civet cats) and first infected humans in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002.
Transmission
An epidemic of SARS affected 26 countries and resulted in more than 8000 cases in 2003. Since then, a small number of cases have occurred as a result of laboratory accidents or, possibly, through animal-to-human transmission (Guangdong, China).
Transmission of SARS-CoV is primarily from person to person. It appears to have occurred mainly during the second week of illness, which corresponds to the peak of virus excretion in respiratory secretions and stool, and when cases with severe disease start to deteriorate clinically. Most cases of human-to-human transmission occurred in the health care setting, in the absence of adequate infection control precautions. Implementation of appropriate infection control practices brought the global outbreak to an end.
Nature of the disease
Symptoms are influenza-like and include fever, malaise, myalgia, headache, diarrhoea, and shivering (rigors). No individual symptom or cluster of symptoms has proved to be specific for a diagnosis of SARS. Although fever is the most frequently reported symptom, it is sometimes absent on initial measurement, especially in elderly and immunosuppressed patients.
Cough (initially dry), shortness of breath, and diarrhoea are present in the first and/or second week of illness. Severe cases often evolve rapidly, progressing to respiratory distress and requiring intensive care.
Geographical distribution
The distribution is based on the 2002–2003 epidemic. The disease appeared in November 2002 in the Guangdong province of southern China. This area is considered as a potential zone of re-emergence of SARS-CoV.
Other countries/areas in which chains of human-to-human transmission occurred after early importation of cases were Toronto in Canada, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, and Hanoi in Viet Nam.”
Disease Progress Timeline:
As the ongoing outbreak continues, I’m going to try and fill in the blanks for everyone interested. To do that, I’m going to try and keep a timeline of events as they occur. This will be updated Dailey to the best of my ability.
December 12: Virus detected in China.
January 1st: Huanan Seafood Market that may have started outbreak is shuttered, disinfected.
January 6th: Virus remains unidentified, Hong Kong reports 21 infected.
January 14th: IR thermometers are implemented in travel screening in Wuhan City.
January 19th: Confirmed case in S. Korea.
January 20th: First reports of sick healthcare employees. NIH begins vaccine research.
January 21st: First confirmed U.S case. Australia begins airport screenings. First reported Australia case. India begins travel screenings.
January 22nd: Government Officials shut down Wuhan Public Transportation. Death toll rises to 17. 571 cases of Wuhan Coronavirus reported by China’s National Health Commission. Hubei Province begins lockdowns in varying capacities city wide.
January 23rd: Suspected case reported in Brazil’s County, Texas. CNN reports that Chinese Snakes may be the cause of outbreak. Health 36 year old male dies due to CoronaVirus. Travel lockdown expanded, 35 million (estimated) under quarantine.
January 24th: Wuhan Begins 6 day hospital construction process to open 1,000 new hospital beds. Reported (confirmed by CDC) case in Chicago. All 5 Scotland patients test negative. Unconfirmed source claims disease is airborne.
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