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What is a coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

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Can humans become infected with a novel coronavirus of animal source?

Detailed investigations found that SARS-CoV was transmitted from civet cats to humans in China in 2002 and MERS-CoV from dromedary camels to humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Several known coronaviruses are circulating in animals that have not yet infected humans.  As surveillance improves around the world, more coronaviruses are likely to be identified.

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Can coronaviruses be transmitted from person to person?

Yes, some coronaviruses can be transmitted from person to person, usually after close contact with an infected patient, for example, in a household, workplace, or health care centre.

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Is there a treatment for a novel coronavirus?

There is no specific treatment for disease caused by a novel coronavirus. However, many of the symptoms can be treated and therefore treatment based on the patient’s clinical condition. Moreover, supportive care for infected persons can be highly effective.

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Are health workers at risk from a novel coronavirus?

Yes, they can be, as health care workers come into contact with patients more often than the general public WHO recommends that health care workers consistently apply appropriate infection prevention and control measures.

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Where can I find more information about known coronaviruses?

For more information on MERS-CoV:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/middle-east-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-(mers-cov)

For More information on SARS-CoV:
https://www.who.int/csr/sars/en/


-from the World Health Organization Q and A
https://www.who.int/news-room/

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Is there a possibility for the coronavirus to cause a pandemic?


New coronavirus looks set to cause a pandemic – how do we control it?

HEALTH 29 January 2020
By Debora MacKenzie


The new coronavirus, as imaged by an electron microscope
Zhu et al/NEJM © 2020, Massachusetts Medical Society

The new coronavirus may be about to go global. Speaking at a press conference earlier this week, Gabriel Leung at the University of Hong Kong said that without “substantial, draconian measures limiting population mobility” – even greater than the unprecedented transportation shutdown that China has already imposed – epidemics outside China “may become inevitable”.

Coronavirus facts: Listen to our podcast about the new coronavirus outbreak
It could be too late. Leung and other epidemiologists calculate that there are far more cases in China than doctors have diagnosed, and by next week there may be 200,000. Computer models suggest that, as with flu, Ebola and SARS, travel restrictions may have little impact.

One epidemiologist, however, thinks there may be hope in the variable way the virus is thought to spread, based on its close relatives SARS and MERS.

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Death rate still unknown

Other epidemic modelers suspect that a large number of cases have been missed. Leung told journalists this week that there are probably 25,000 sick and another 19,000 incubating the virus just in Wuhan, the origin of the outbreak. By comparison, MERS has caused only 2499 cases since it emerged in 2012, and SARS sickened 8000 in its global rampage in 2003.

SARS killed 11 percent of cases, and so far the Wuhan virus has killed 2.3 percent, but most people are still in the midst of infection –  96 percent of people with the virus haven’t yet either died or recovered. Leung’s team estimates that the death rate could be as high as 14 percent.

Fisman notes that in several cases one infected person has transmitted the virus to far more than two people – one infected 14, many of them health workers. Such “super-spreader” events are typical of both SARS and MERS, said Neil Ferguson at Imperial College London earlier this week.

“It means scary events happen, with large clusters of cases,” says Fisman. “But these are likely to attract attention and a public health response”, with everyone exposed quarantined.

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