The world has been on high alert since December 2019, when a highly contagious respiratory illness caused by a new coronavirus began to break out across China. It has since spread to more than a dozen other countries, infected more than an estimated 3,000 people, and killed at least 80 of those sickened. Meanwhile, infectious disease researchers and global health experts are racing to learn more about what species of animal the disease came from and how deadly it may prove to be in humans.
The outbreak, believed to have originated in a live animal market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, will likely continue to spread. Although officials in China recently expanded a travel lockdown that impacts nearly 35 million of the country's residents, the onset of the outbreak arrived just as travel spiked around celebrations for the Lunar New Year, which occurred on Saturday, January 25.
At this point, it does not appear to be exceptionally lethal.
Last week in the United States, the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in Seattle, Wash. Since then, four additional cases have been confirmed, two in California and one each in Arizona and Illinois. All of the infected individuals recently traveled from Wuhan, China. Five international airports in the United States are routing all passengers arriving from Wuhan and screening travelers for symptoms of the illness. Across the country, nearly 110 people are being evaluated for infection. There has yet to be any confirmed cases in Massachusetts, but that isn't stopping Boston University officials from keeping an extra close eye on the outbreak.
To learn more about the new coronavirus and what we can expect from the outbreak in the days ahead, The Brink spoke with Mohsan Saeed and John Connor from Boston University's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. Saeed studies emerging viruses that affect the respiratory system in humans, similar to the newly identified coronavirus. Connor researches what makes viruses so effective at infecting animals and humans and recently helped develop a diagnostic tool to differentiate fevers caused by the Ebola, Marburg, and Lassa viruses from ones caused by the malaria parasite.
This conversation was edited for length and clarity.
