Info from my brother who is usually pretty smart and an ER doc:
SARS-COVID-19 Update
As the Covid-19 outbreak increases, we're seeing more countries drop on the travel advisory list. An outbreak ocurred in Washington state this weekend and the first novel virus-associated death in the US was recorded.
The CDC reports 87,000 cases worldwide, 80,000 of which are in China. Briefly, this virus shares similarities to the SARS-COV and MERS-COV viruses, All of which are coronaviruses. This is a very large and common virus family, species are seeing both humans and other animals. Rarely is there a spread from an animal to humans but this has occurred in the previous two coronavirus infections above. Interestingly, all three viruses have origins in bats.
This new virus was initially identified in the Hubei province of China in WuHan city. Originally connected to a seafood and live animal market in the city of WuHan, the virus is thought to have changed from animal to human transmission to person to person transmission.
On January 30 of 2020 the WHO declared a “public health emergency of international concern.” And on January 31 the US health and human services declared a public health emergency.
The complete clinical picture of covert 19, it’s timeline and severely are not fully known, however reported cases have been from mild to severe, with most deaths occurring in those individuals with extremes of age, extremely young or elderly, or those individuals with multiple comorbidities, chronic illnesses or decreased immune function. In the United States, the current risk of exposure to US citizens is still considered low.
Symptoms usually occur 2 to 14 days after exposure, and major symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath. in other words, like almost every other viral infection.
To put things into perspective, there were 8098 cases of SARS and 774 deaths. That was a 9.6% chance of death. Influenza occurs throughout the world in yearly outbreaks and affects between three and 5 million individuals with a severe illness each year, resulting in about 300,000 to 650,000 deaths per year.
Although this new virus is considered more contagious and more deadly than the influenza virus, I want to emphasize that that does appear to be only in patients who are severely ill, With underlying comorbidities, chronic illnesses, and extremes of age.
The virus is thought to spread in similar patterns to other coronaviruses and the recommended method for decreasing risk of transmission is frequent handwashing, wearing a surgical mask is also useful. Staying approximately 6 feet away from infected individuals, covering your mouth and nose from nasal and respiratory secretions, and washing surfaces will also decrease risk of spread.
At this time there’s no vaccine or cure. However staying in good health, sleeping appropriately, exercising well, staying hydrated will help not only with this particular coronavirus but any viral infection. At this point we still don’t know everything about the disease, but I would go about my daily life and not be deeply concerned. Treat this like any other virus or viral infection. This is just the media’s new zombie apocalypse story which causes a frenzy across all walks of life.