CDC confirms second US case of coronavirus and is monitoring dozens of other potential cases

CNBC ^ | Fri, Jan 24 202010:14 AM ESTUpdated 3 hours ago | Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

[Red Badger]

U.S. health officials said Friday they diagnosed a second patient with the China coronavirus — a Chicago woman who returned from Wuhan with the infection, and they are monitoring dozens of other potential cases here.

There are 63 cases being monitored in the U.S. that stretch across 22 states, including the first patient in Washington state and the new case in Illinois, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Officials said the new patient, a woman in her 60s, is doing well and is in stable condition. She remains isolated in a hospital as a precaution, U.S. health officials said on a conference call with reporters. The Illinois patient traveled to China in late December and began experiencing symptoms when she returned to the U.S. last week, officials said. She did not have symptoms while flying, they said.

“She was not symptomatic when flying. And based on what we know now about this virus, our concern for transmission before symptoms develop is low, so that is reassuring,” Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago’s public health commissioner, said on the call.

Upon returning to the U.S., the patient had very limited movement from outside her home and did not use public transportation or attend any large gatherings, they said. The patient began to feel unwell a few days after completing her trip and alerted her doctor.

“CDC believes the immediate risk to the U.S. public is low at this time, but the situation continues to evolve rapidly,” Messonnier said, adding that there is likely to be more cases in coming days. “We have our best people working on this problem.”

The flu-like coronavirus, first identified on Dec. 31, has killed at least 26 people in China and infected more than 900 worldwide.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the country’s first case — a Washington state man who has been quarantined in a hospital outside of Seattle after flying back from Wuhan, where the outbreak was first reported. The CDC said the man reached out to local health authorities last week once he started experiencing pneumonia-like symptoms.

U.S. health officials warned on Friday that the flu or other respiratory illnesses could complicate identifying more cases. They recommend that people call a health-care provider before seeking treatment so the appropriate measures can be put in place. The CDC is trying to speed up testing and to get the tests in the hands of state health officials. It currently takes the CDC about four to six hours to make a diagnosis once a sample makes it to its lab.

“We’re really working to understand the full spectrum of the illness with this coronavirus,” Messonnier said. “The problem with this time of year is it’s cold and flu season and there are lots of cold and respiratory infections circulating.”

On Thursday, the World Health Organization declined to formally designate the new virus as a global health emergency, after postponing its decision the day before. Health officials are trying to contain the fast-spreading illness without unnecessarily spooking global trade. WHO physicians said they needed more data before declaring a global emergency, but the virus is now spreading through close human contact and in health-care settings, they said.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that usually infect animals but can sometimes evolve and spread to humans. Symptoms in humans include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, which can progress to pneumonia.

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Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[VanDeKoik]

People, Just go to Chinatown in NYC if you need to see Chinese people that badly.

[Sacajaweau]

This looks like its going to spread like wildfire.

[Artcore]

Wow, you’ve been busy today. Try not to have a nervous breakdown!

[Fai Mao]

So how long before PDJT and/or Global Warming is blamed?

[circlecity]

Famine, pestilence and the sword.....

[Stosh]

Lotsa stuff on the Illinois case in the local Chicago news, along with claims that the carrier (recently returned from a visit to China) had little or no contact with anyone other than family - but tellingly, they won’t reveal which hospital she’s in.

[gibsonguy]

From the CDC: “Most people with common human coronavirus illness will recover on their own”

[frank ballenger]

Darn it all.

After my posts yesterday about so many Chinese college students and settlers with anchor babies near me here in MI, darned if there aren’t two—count ‘em—two suspected virus cases now in this county. Probably in the apt. complex down my very street.

I can’t stand it. 50 states, millions of people and my area happens to be one of the unlucky ones.

Soon all of us will be trouble no matter which state. Travel from China is spreading it all over.