- All right Kerri, thank you.
Well, it's been all over the news,
a new virus from China was discovered in the United States
and it's called the coronavirus.
- What is it and are you or your kids in danger
of getting it?
Matt Stewart is live at Research Medical Center
with an infectious disease expert to talk about it.
- Good morning.
Yeah, you know a lot of concern out there about
this new virus from Wuhan, China.
We just had a case here in the U.S. up in Washington State
so a lot of you are wondering what is it,
so let's go to the expert, right?
We have Doctor Joel McKinsey he
is an infectious disease specialist
at Research Medical Center.
First of all, it's kind of wrong
to call it the coronavirus, right?
- Well, it is a coronavirus.
There are several coronaviruses in
that family of respiratory illnesses
that circulate in humans.
This is a new, or novel coronavirus.
- And it doesn't have a name yet
so that's why everyone's calling it coronavirus.
- Correct.
And that is the family.
It is in a family of coronaviruses.
- Okay, so how did this virus become?
- So, it's thought that this virus emerged
from the animal population.
So, in humans there are several coronaviruses
that circulate all the time.
In animals, there are even more coronaviruses
that don't typically affect humans
but it's thought that this one mutated in a way
that allowed it to infect humans in Wuhan.
And there's the concern that it may be spreading
from person to person, and that's the big concern.
- What's the severity?
I mean, I know we don't have a lot of information
but from what you've heard,
what's the severity of this virus?
How concerned should we be?
- So, there's very limited information currently.
I've heard that there have been reported 600 cases
and 17 deaths in China.
Most of the deaths as far as we know have occurred
in people with underlying medical problems,
but we just don't know yet how severe this will be.
- And symptom wise it's kind of like the common cold?
- So most coronaviruses cause a relatively mild illness
which is just like the common cold
with fever, runny nose, and cough.
Some new coronaviruses can cause more severe illness
that can lead to respiratory failure.
- Okay, so obviously as Doctor McKinsey's telling us,
still learning a lot about what's going on
with this new virus out of Wuhan, China.
But obviously the CDC is on top of it.
They're learning as much as they can
and hopefully we as journalists will continue
to share that information as it becomes available.
But no cases here in the Kansas City area?
- None yet.
- So, right now hopefully we don't have to worry about it.
Matt Stewart, Fox4 News.
- Yeah, they are taking every precaution over
in China, Matt.
You probably read this,
in Wuhan, China they basically quarantined the city,
and that's a city of 11 million people.
- Yeah, it's a lot of people.
They can't even take public transportation there.
- I know, really trying to keep it contained.
- Yeah, all right.
Thanks Matt.