Coronavirus Megathread

A novel coronavirus, likely transmitted from animals to humans at a market in Wuhan, China, has now infected more than 6,000 people. There have been 130+ confirmed deaths attributed to the virus and it's now in 18 countries.

Since the outbreak, there have been a lot of sensational headlines and up-to-the-minute reporting about the dire futures we may all face. If you are seeking accurate information, without the wild speculation, please refer to the following sources:

The CDC's Dedicated Coronavirus Resource,

The WHO's Dedicated Coronavirus Resource,

And the University of Chicago School of Medicine's handy FAQ style resource.

 

The WHO even made a short video to answer some of the common questions they're getting. Check it out here.

 

You can also check out this live tracker/map of the spread of the coronavirus provided by John Hopkins University.

 

And for those too lazy to click on the University of Chicago Med resource, here are some of the answers to commonly asked questions:

 

What is a coronavirus? What is a novel coronavirus?

A coronavirus is actually the name for a set of illnesses, including the common cold and other respiratory infections. A novel coronavirus means it’s a new virus that originated in animals, but has jumped to humans. This particular virus from Wuhan is being called the 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV.

 

How does the Wuhan coronavirus spread?

So far, there’s limited information about the Wuhan novel coronavirus, including how easy it is to spread and how dangerous it is. But we know the virus can be transmitted from person to person and it is passed by coughing and other close contact.

Close contact is a vague term that means a lot of things to different people. But in this case, it specifically means being within about six feet of someone for a prolonged period of time without wearing recommended personal protective equipment such as a disposable face mask. It could also be having direct contact with infectious secretions of someone who has a case of the virus (for example: being coughed on) while not wearing personal protective equipment.

That can sound scary, but it’s important to know that influenza is also transmitted the same way.

 

Is this coronavirus deadly?

The numbers of how many people have been diagnosed or how many have died are changing rapidly. Without accurate numerators and denominators, the jury’s still out. That said, we do know that more than 100 people in China have died from this virus. Based on the information I’m seeing, it looks very similar to SARS in a number of ways — except for the fact that it’s likely less deadly, but more transmittable.

 

What are the symptoms of the virus?

We’re still learning more about Wuhan novel coronavirus, but we know it typically causes flu-like symptoms including a fever, cough and congestion. Some patients — particularly the elderly and others with other chronic health conditions — develop a severe form of pneumonia.

 

How do you treat patients with this virus? Can you vaccinate against it?

Things like antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria, not a virus. So typically doctors can treat the symptoms, but not the virus itself. There’s no vaccine yet.

Submitted January 29, 2020 at 04:06PM by hoosakiwi https://ift.tt/37E5mZt