The new coronavirus continues to spread with more than 24,000 cases in China and nearly 200 cases reported in other countries. The outbreak is serious, but if you’re living in the United States, the odds are that the everyday flu is a much more serious risk to your health. At this point, the seasonal flu carries much greater odds of killing you while in the United States than the novel coronavirus recently identified in Wuhan, China.
The viral outbreak is still in the early stages and there’s potential for it to mutate or for deaths to be undercounted at this early stage.
But at this point the death rate for the new coronavirus appears to be around 2 percent, far less than SARS at about 10 percent.
In confirmed cases of infection, reported symptoms range from people with little or no signs to those with:
- fever
- cough
- shortness of breath
Although the new virus can infect people of any age, older people and those with asthma, diabetes, or heart disease appear to be most vulnerable to potentially life-threatening illness with this virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) .
“Corona means ‘crown,’ so these viruses appear crown-shaped when looked at
“Most coronaviruses are harmless,” he said. “They’ll usually cause mild to moderate upper respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. Most people will get infected with these viruses at some point in their lives.”
Sud emphasizes that while the outlook is good for most people infected with this type of virus, the SARS and MERS strains are more serious.
The death rate is around 10 percent for people with SARS and 30 percent for those with the MERS variant.
“What is unknown right now is the virus being typed. They’re doing testing to find out what type of virus this is and whether it’s more similar to SARS or MERS,” Bhayani said. “I have a strong feeling that this is going to be a new virus.”
According to Sud, human coronaviruses most commonly transmit from an infected person to others via:
- the air by coughing and sneezing
- close personal contact, such as touching or shaking hands
- touching an object or surface with the virus on it, then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes before washing your hands
“In the United States, people usually get infected with common human coronaviruses in the fall and winter. However, infection can occur at any time of the year,” he said.
“Most people will get infected with one or more of the common human coronaviruses in their lifetime,” he added.
Sud also points out both SARS and MERS outbreaks were from animal-to-human contact, with SARS most likely from contact with bats and MERS from contact with camels.
“Since the organism causing infection is a virus, to date, we don’t have any specific antiviral medications,” Sud said.
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