China’s highly contagious and deadly virus, that’s been spreading through Asia, has now spread to the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials have confirmed.
An American man in his 30s from Washington state has just been diagnosed with the killer coronavirus after he visited Wuhan, China.
Officials say the man, a resident of the US located north of Seattle, is hospitalized and in “good” condition.
The unnamed patient is the first detected case on US soil and is currently being closely monitored in isolation at Providence Regional Medical Center – Everett.
According to state health officials, the man traveled from Wuhan but didn’t visit any of the markets at the epicenter of the outbreak.
Before he developed symptoms, the patient arrived back in the US on January 15, the day before screening was in place, but he reportedly recognized his own symptoms – which typically include fever, cough, and runny nose – after seeing news coverage of the virus spreading through Asia.
The man reached out to doctors on January 16, was tested on the 17th and his diagnosis was confirmed Monday, health officials said .
On the heels of the identification of this first US patient, all flights from Wuhan into the US are being rerouted to the three airports set up last week for screening – LAX, San Francisco, and JFK – as well as an additional two locations: Chicago O’Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Washington officials do not consider the American man’s illness severe but are taking precautions.
With the addition of the US, the newly-identified coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China, has now spread to five countries, including Thailand, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.
The first US case comes less than a week after the CDC announced that three airports – John F Kennedy International, Los Angeles, and San Francisco – would begin screening passengers arriving from Wuhan for the virus.
So far, the CDC has screened over 1,2000 passengers, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases during the Tuesday telebriefing.
Source: neonnettle.com
