In the second confirmed case of Wuhan virus in the US, a Chicago woman has fallen ill.
According to the CDC, the woman traveled to the Wuhan region of China in December, and reentered the US through O’Hare on January 13.
Thankfully, the woman had little close contact with others during her travel and was not ill while she was traveling.
According to a press release by the CDC, the woman has been quarantined at a Chicago hospital to limit her interactions with others. This will hopefully prevent the disease from spreading to anyone else in the US.
Starting on Friday, officials will begin health screenings for any passengers entering the US from China at O’Hare Airport. While the World Health Organization (WHO) doesn’t consider the coronavirus to be a “global emergency,” the potential of the virus to cause respiratory failure in older people makes it deadly under the right conditions.
The coronavirus is a cousin of SARS. SARS is sudden acute respiratory syndrome that can be deadly in people with compromised immune systems.
A similar disease, MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome, originated in camels before making the jump to humans, meaning it’s a zoonotic disease. The coronavirus is also likely zoonotic. It only recently made the jump to humans.
Due to the disease’s alarming family tree, officials have been taking its sudden outbreak and spread very seriously. Otherwise healthy individuals infected with the disease might experience flu-like symptoms, fatigue, fever and diarrhea.
The real danger of the disease, however, is if it causes respiratory failure in people with compromised immune systems. Older people and pregnant women are at a higher risk.
Efforts by health organizations to stop the spread of the disease have identified cases in at least five countries. The main avenue through which the disease has escaped the Wuhan area is through travelers taking airplanes out of the region.
In the US, efforts are underway to identify and quarantine those who are carrying the disease. This effort has identified 63 people in 23 states for investigation to determine if they are carrying the virus.
