WHO Up­dates on Coro­n­avirus

MISHAWAKA – On Dec. 31, 2019, the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO) con­firmed the first case of the Novel Coro­n­avirus in Wuhan, China. The dis­ease has since spread around the world, with con­firmed cases in Eu­rope, Aus­tralia, Africa and North Amer­ica. Ac­cord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol, the first U.S. case of the virus was on Jan. 15. The pa­tient con­tracted the virus dur­ing a trip to Wuhan and re­turned home to Wash­ing­ton; the pa­tient has been treated.  

On Feb. 11, the WHO re­ported the virus has in­fected more than 43,000 peo­ple world­wide; with a death toll of 1,018. Of these con­firmed cases, 15 have been con­firmed in the U.S. On Jan. 31, the De­part­ment of Health and Hu­man Ser­vices de­clared the Coro­n­avirus a pub­lic health emer­gency in the U.S. There have been no con­firmed cases in In­di­ana. 

The WHO has in­ves­ti­gated the zoonotic com­po­nent of this dis­ease and has iden­ti­fied over 500 vari­a­tions of the coro­n­avirus in bats. It re­mains un­clear how the virus orig­i­nally trans­ferred to hu­mans. Ac­cord­ing to the WHO, in China, bats are rarely sold in mar­ket­places, how­ever, they are hunted and sold di­rectly to restau­rants for food. 

The Novel Coro­n­avirus is an up­per res­pi­ra­tory ill­ness. Ac­cord­ing to the CDC, the most com­mon symp­toms of the coro­n­avirus are fever, cough, and short­ness of breath. Ad­di­tional symp­toms may in­clude runny nose, headache, sore throat and a gen­eral feel­ing of be­ing un­well.  

Ac­cord­ing to Daniel Amen, M.D., di­rec­tor of Amen Clin­ics, coro­n­aviruses are a group of viruses that cause in­fec­tion in the nose, si­nuses and throat. These viruses can cause mild ill­nesses like the com­mon cold; how­ever, they can also cause more se­vere ill­ness which can lead to pneu­mo­nia and early death. He rec­om­mends that to lower your risk of get­ting ill, you should lower your stress and eat im­mune boost­ing foods. 

The CDC and WHO rec­om­mends wash­ing your hands fre­quently and avoid­ing close con­tact with those suf­fer­ing from acute res­pi­ra­tory in­fec­tions. Those suf­fer­ing with acute res­pi­ra­tory in­fec­tion should stay home when sick and main­tain dis­tance from oth­ers when cough­ing or sneez­ing, as well as cover their mouths with dis­pos­able tis­sue or cloth­ing, and wash their hands fre­quently or use an al­co­hol-based hand-san­i­tizer to pre­vent the spread of germs.