Here’s the latest that you need to know about the coronavirus
By Betsy McKay Updated Feb. 22, 2020 10:06 am ET Concern is high about a dangerous new coronavirus behind an epidemic in China and illnesses in 26 other countries. The number of people sick with or dying of a viral pneumonia caused by the virus is still rising in the epicenter of Hubei Province, China, despite a quarantine of some 60 million people and other measures to stop it.
Seven strains are known to infect humans, including this new virus, causing illnesses in the respiratory tract. Four of those strains cause common colds. Two others, by contrast, rank among the deadliest of human infections: severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS.
To infect new hosts, the virus’s genes undergo mutations that alter its surface proteins, allowing them to latch onto the cells of new species.In the case of SARS, the virus jumped from bats to civet cats before gaining the ability to infect humans. In the case of MERS, camels served as the intermediate host.Coronaviruses can also jump directly to humans, without mutating or passing through an intermediate species.
Who is most at risk? Adults of all ages have been infected, but the risk is highest for older people and those with other health conditions such as diabetes. Most of the 1,023 people whose deaths were included in a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention were age 60 or older, and/or had other illnesses. Many patients who have died were admitted to hospitals when their illness was advanced. Few children have been reported with the infection, but that could change.
Scientists are also investigating whether the new coronavirus may spread in feces, as tests have found it in the digestive tract of some patients. if { function loadCSS{function d{for;t?o.media=n||"all":setTimeout}var o=window.document.createElement,a=t||window.document.getElementsByTagName[0],i=window.document.styleSheets;return o.rel="stylesheet",o.href=e.trim,o.media="only x",a.parentNode.appendChild,d,o}window.loadCSS=loadCSS; } #g-CVIRUS_MASK-box.ai2html_export { max-width: 700px; width:100%; margin: 0 auto; } .g-aiImg { margin-top: -1.2px; } .
N95 masks offer more protection. But they only work if they fit properly, and aren’t suitable for children or people with facial hair. Surgical masks don’t offer full protection against airborne viruses. They don’t fully seal off the nose and mouth. Can you catch the virus from someone even before they have symptoms? It is possible. But little is known so far. In Macau, a 15-year-old resident of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, tested positive for the coronavirus despite having no fever or cough, according to that special administrative region of China. Scientists reported in the Lancet medical journal that they identified the coronavirus in a 10-year-old boy who developed no symptoms, even though others in the child’s family fell ill.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS Do you have questions about the risk of the new coronavirus from China? Join the conversation below. But the new virus spreads from one person to another more easily than SARS, some disease modeling and case studies suggest. Are there drugs to treat coronaviruses? There aren’t any drugs or vaccines approved specifically for the new virus. But several are in development or being studied. Two clinical trials in China are evaluating remdesivir, an antiviral drug from Gilead Sciences Inc. that was also tested for Ebola.
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