There is currently no vaccine for the rapidly spreading Coronavirus 19. As of March 3, the total cases in the U.S. was 100. There were six deaths in Washington State, and the Washington Post reported that the virus circulated for several weeks before it was detected.
Nancy Messonnier, M.D., director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said March 3 during a national press teleconference that information from China indicates COVID-19 causes serious illness in about 16 percent of cases. Mortality is estimated at two percent. Messonnier said COVID-19 has now spread to 12 states and is likely to spread to others.
“What is happening now in the U.S. may be the beginning of what is happening abroad,” Messonnier said. “We will continue an aggressive national posture of containment. It is possible to contain the virus and mitigate the spread.”
There has been a lot of panic buying in response to the potential pandemic. If you want to be prepared, what should you do?
The CDC says purchasing regular face masks won’t protect you, but eminent pathologist James Robb, M.D., recommends on stocking up now with disposable surgical marks to prevent you from touching your nose and/or mouth. He said we touch our nose/mouth 90 times a day without noticing it.
“This is the only way this virus can infect you – it is lung specific,” Robb, one of the first molecular virologists in the world to work on coronaviruses, wrote in an email. He expects COVID-19 to be widespread in the U.S. by mid- to late March and April.
Robb recommends awareness of who and what you touch:
1) No handshaking – A slight bow, elbow bump, etc.
2) Use your knuckle to touch light switches, elevator buttons, etc. Lift the gasoline dispenser with a paper towel or use a disposable glove.
3) Open doors without grasping the handle with your hand, unless there is no other way to open the door. This is especially important on bathroom and commercial doors.
4) Use disinfectant wipes at the stores when they are available, including wiping the handle and child seat in grocery carts.
5) Wash your hands with soap for 10-20 seconds and/or use a greater than 60 percent alcohol-based hand sanitizer whenever you return home from any activity where other people have been.
6) Keep a bottle of sanitizer available at each of your home’s entrances and in your car for use after getting gas or touching other contaminated objects when you can’t immediately wash your hands.
7) If possible, cough or sneeze into a disposable tissue and discard. Sneeze into your elbow only if you have to. The clothing on your elbow can contain an infectious virus for up to a week or more.
He also recommends latex or nitrile latex disposable gloves for use when shopping, getting gas and other areas where you might come into contact with contaminated areas.
“This virus is spread in large droplets by coughing and sneezing,” Robb wrote. “This means that the air will not infect you. But all the surfaces where these droplets land are infectious for about a week on average. Everything associated with infected people will be contaminated and potentially infectious. The only way for the virus to infect you is through your nose or mouth via your hands or an infected cough or sneeze onto or into your nose or mouth.”
He said he hopes this pandemic will be reasonably contained, but he personally does not think it will be. “Humans have never seen this snake-associated virus before and have no internal defense against it,” he said.
Is it COVID-19?
How can you tell if you have a cold, the flu, Coronavirus Disease or the respiratory COVID-19 that it causes? According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), it can be hard to diagnose without testing. People who think they may have been exposed to COVID-19 should contact their healthcare provider immediately.
Symptoms that may appear 2-14 days after exposure include fever, cough and shortness of breath. Reported illnesses have ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death for confirmed COVID-19 cases. Those most at risk include people over 50 and/or those with damaged immune systems. Children appear to be at less risk.
The CDC has reported the virus that causes COVID-19 seems to be “community spread” in some geographic areas. Community spread means people have been infected with the virus in an area, including some who are not sure how or where they became infected.