id=”article-body” class=”row” section=”article-body”> Robert Rodriguez/CNET China continues to battle an outbreak of a pneumonia-like illness, first detected in the city of Wuhan in December. The illnesses are caused by a novel coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, which has now infected more than 40,000 people and 우리카지노 claimed more than 900 lives.
The illness was first reported to the World Health Organization on New Year’s Eve and in the intervening weeks was linked to a family of viruses known as coronaviruses, the same family responsible for SARS and MERS, as well as some cases of the common cold.
There are no approved treatments for coronaviruses, but on Feb. 6, China started enrolling a small number of patients in a clinical trial of remdesivir, an experimental antiviral made by American pharmaceutical company Gilead that has not yet been approved for any use, but has shown promise in lab studies. “While there are no antiviral data for remdesivir that show activity against 2019-nCoV at this time, available data in other coronaviruses give us hope,” Gilead said in a statement.
A special WHO committee declared a public health emergency of international concern on Jan. 30, citing “the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems.” Human-to-human transmission has been confirmed outside China, including in the US, leading authorities around the world to begin limiting travel and enforcing quarantines to guard against the spread.
After another 81 deaths were confirmed in China’s Hubei province on Feb. 8, the death toll surpassed that of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic that spread across the world in 2002-2003. That outbreak killed 774 people. On Feb. 9, the death toll surpassed 900, overtaking death toll of MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), a similar coronavirus that has killed 858 people since 2012.
Those two viruses have a higher death rate, with SARS killing about 10% of those infected and MERS killing about 34%, whereas 2019-nCoV hovers at around 2% to 3% for now.
The death toll still pales in comparison to that of influenza — the flu — which, through the first four weeks of 2020, has killed 1,210 in the US alone, according to the CDC.
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The situation continues to evolve as more information becomes available. We’ve collated everything we know about the novel virus, what’s next for 우리카지노 researchers and some of the steps you can take to reduce your risk.
What is a coronavirus?
Where did the virus come from?
How many confirmed cases have been reported?
How many deaths have been reported?
How do we know it’s a new coronavirus?
How does the coronavirus spread?
How infectious is coronavirus?
What are the symptoms of the coronavirus?
Is there a treatment for coronavirus?
How to reduce your risk of coronavirus
Now playing: Watch this: Deadly coronavirus detected in the US 1:41 What is a coronavirus?
Coronaviruses belong to a family known as Coronaviridae, and under an electron microscope they look like spiked rings. They’re named for these spikes, which form a halo or “crown” around their viral envelope.
Coronaviruses contain a single strand of RNA within the envelope and, as a virus, can’t reproduce without getting inside living cells and hijacking their machinery. The spikes on the viral envelope help coronaviruses bind to cells, which gives them a way in, like blasting the door open with C4. Once inside, they turn the cell into a virus factory, using its molecular conveyor belt to produce more viruses, which are then shipped out of the cell. The virus progeny infect other cells and the cycle starts anew.