{"id":3243,"date":"2020-01-23T16:29:04","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T22:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/?p=3243"},"modified":"2026-02-06T10:34:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:34:52","slug":"novel-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/2020\/01\/23\/novel-coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Novel Coronavirus – What You Need to Know Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Content courtesy of Dr. Angela Hewlett<\/em><\/p>\n

Coronaviruses are common respiratory pathogens, and generally cause mild symptoms of the \u2018common cold\u2019.\u00a0 However, other coronavirus strains have been known to cause outbreaks that lead to more severe disease like pneumonia, and even death.\u00a0 Examples of these include SARS and MERS, which are both coronaviruses with mortality rates of 10% and 34%, respectively. Here is a newly published article on Coronaviruses from JAMA:\u00a0https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jama\/fullarticle\/2759815<\/a><\/p>\n

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From:https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/goatsandsoda\/2020\/01\/22\/798277557\/how-does-wuhan-coronavirus-compare-to-mers-sars-and-the-common-cold<\/p><\/div>\n

An outbreak of a novel coronavirus (nCoV)<\/a> not previously identified in humans began in Wuhan, China (a city of 11 million people) at the end of December.\u00a0 The first cases were linked to a seafood market, but subsequent cases have demonstrated that human-to-human transmission is occurring, likely via the respiratory route.\u00a0 \u00a0Thus far, 571 confirmed cases and 17 deaths have been reported.\u00a0 Most of the deaths have occurred in elderly patients with multiple comorbid conditions.\u00a0 The majority of nCoV cases have occurred in Wuhan, China, but multiple travel-related cases have been seen in other countries, including the United States. \u00a0It is highly likely that more travel-related cases will be detected as the outbreak evolves.\u00a0 A laboratory test is now available, and scientists are working on a vaccine, although this process could take some time.<\/p>\n

While it is important to continue to monitor the nCoV situation closely, it is also necessary to keep this in perspective.\u00a0 Influenza causes between 12,000 and 61,000 deaths in the United States every year, and we are in the middle of a very active influenza<\/a> season.\u00a0 People should remember to get their flu shot, wash their hands, cover their cough, and stay home from work or school if they are ill. \u00a0These basic infection control measures help prevent the spread of any respiratory disease.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check out the Facebook live video of UNMC ID experts, Drs. Lawler, Hewlett & Rupp answering questions:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NebraskaMed\/videos\/624298111651330\/<\/a><\/p>\n

CDC resources on status updates, travel information and more here:\u00a0https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2Fnovel-coronavirus-2019.html<\/a><\/p>\n

WHO resources:\u00a0https:\/\/www.who.int\/csr\/don\/17-january-2020-novel-coronavirus-japan-ex-china\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Content courtesy of Dr. Angela Hewlett Coronaviruses are common respiratory pathogens, and generally cause mild symptoms of the \u2018common cold\u2019.\u00a0 However, other coronavirus strains have been known to cause outbreaks that lead to more severe disease like pneumonia, and even death.\u00a0 Examples of these include SARS and MERS, which are both coronaviruses with mortality rates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":532,"featured_media":3247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-infection-prevention-and-control"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/532"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3243"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6460,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3243\/revisions\/6460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}