A woman wears a mask while walking past the closed seafood market in Wuhan that has been linked to ... [+]
Today the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that air travelers who fly from Wuhan, China into three U.S. airports — San Francisco International Airport (SFO), New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) — will be screened for pneumonia symptoms associated with a novel coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV that has resulted in 45 confirmed human infections in China, including two deaths.
A coronavirus is a type of common respiratory virus. Most are not dangerous, however, two newer coronaviruses have been exceptions: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which spread around the world in 2003, and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
Chinese health officials believe that 2019-nCoV is a new virus that has jumped the species barrier to infect people. Most of the patients in the outbreak in Wuhan, China have reportedly had some link to a large seafood and animal market, suggesting animal-to-person spread. That market was closed in early January for disinfecting.
But some patients in the outbreak reportedly have not had exposure to animal markets, suggesting that some limited person-to-person spread may be occurring,” according to the CDC website.
Wuhan City is a major transportation hub about 700 miles south of Beijing with a population of more than 11 million people. To date, three cases have occurred outside China, in Thailand and Japan. All three were travelers from Wuhan.
The CDC says it is responding to this outbreak out of an abundance of caution, and currently assesses the risk from coronavirus to the American public to be low, said Dr. Nancy Messonnier, Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a media briefing today. But Dr. Messonnier later noted, “I think it’s highly plausible there will be at least a case in the United States.”
“To further protect the health of the American public during the emergence of this novel coronavirus, CDC is beginning entry screening at three ports of entry. Investigations into this novel coronavirus are ongoing and we are monitoring and responding to this evolving situation,” said Dr. Martin Cetron, Director of CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine.
The three U.S. airports that will conduct screenings — JFK, SFO and LAX — receive most of the inbound travelers from Wuhan. Screening will begin with questionnaires that ask passengers about symptoms such as cough or fever, as well as if there has been any contact with meat or seafood markets in Wuhan. In addition, screeners will take a temperature check of passengers. Those who show signs of the illness may be sent on to a separate area for a more detailed exam or triaged to area hospitals, said Dr. Cetron.
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