By Uche Mbah
Coronavirus, the disease that started in China and has spread to four other countries, has recorded its first case in the United States.
This magazine had earlier reported on the dangers posed to Nigeria because of the interborder movement between China and Nigeria, with so many Nigerian businesses located in China. Whats more, many Chinese are currently home for their new year celebrations-one of the festivals that entails movements across cities and borders.
The Virus has been detected in Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and South Korea apart from major Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
The first confirmed US case involves a n unnamed person living in Washington DC. According to the New York Times, the man is a resident of Snohomish County. He started experiencing symptoms after returning from a trip to China. He became hospitalized last week on symptoms of pneumonia. By Monday it has been confirmed that he has the virus.
The evidence grows that the virus can be spread through person-to-person contact. This Magazine had reported that four people had died, but within hours of that report, Chinese Authorities confirmed the death of two more patients, bringing the number to six, with now over 200 patients in critical condition.
Although the World Health Organization technical team will meet Wednesday to determine whether they will declare it an international emergency, Scientists are battling to beef up the information bank on the new epidemic, but so many things are not yet adding up. According to the New York Times, Scientists do not know the real cause.
“There are still more questions that we don’t know the answers to than things we do know,” It quoted Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville as saying. “For example, what is the source? We don’t know exactly. The location likely was the live animal market, but we don’t know the particular animal.”
According to him, the more pressing and urgent question is: “How frequent is human-to-human transmission?…Could people with mild infections transmit this virus from person to person? That all remains still under investigation.”
