SEATTLE — The Chinese government confirmed Monday that Wuhan coronavirus is starting to spread from person to person, according to the Associated Press. Two people in China caught the virus from family members, and some health workers have tested positive.
The New York Times reports hundreds of people have been infected since the outbreak began in a seafood and poultry market in Wuhan, China.
Six have died.
According to AP, it spread quickly into Taiwan, Japan, Thailand and South Korea. Now, Wuhan coronavirus has crossed the Pacific Ocean.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the first case in the United States: a man in Washington State who recently traveled to China, the Times reports.
So what is it? Scientists around the world are still trying to figure that out.
The CDC believes this new kind of coronavirus – 2019-nCoV – may have come from animals because the first infections happened in a food market, but that’s basically just an educated guess.
Doctors have seen coronaviruses before.
The CDC says they can cause a variety of illnesses from the common cold to pneumonia, but certain strains can be particularly dangerous.
Some coronaviruses can trigger acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and death.
According to the CDC, they’re a large family of viruses. Some infect people. Others infect animals.
But sometimes, they can spread across species.
The CDC says that’s what happened during the MERS and SARS outbreaks that required massive public health responses to contain.
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