COVID Outbreak USA: COVID is spreading across the globe. When uploading this video, there were 20,670 confirmed cases of novel covid infection, with a vast majority of them in China. Of those 20,670 cases, there are about 460 pneumonia cases and 427 total deaths.
Also, in this COVID Outbreak USA video, I forgot to relay my thoughts on surgical masks. To prevent inhaling the covid, you need a special N95 respirator mask, not a surgical mask. With that said, surgical masks do have some value because they at least prevent you from touching your nose and mouth area.
COVID Outbreak USA
Normally when someone has a cold, it’s either due to the Rhinovirus or the COVID.
Almost all the time, it’s gonna be due to one of these two viruses. But there is a new variant of this covid. That has the potential to cause pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, even death in some cases.
On January 28th of this year, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency based on the spread of this COVID. And based on what they feel, some of the countries don’t have the capabilities to handle this outbreak.
At the time of this recording, there are now eleven confirmed cases in the United States. Also, the CDC has confirmed human-to-human transmission in the United States, not just in China.
The good news is that the overall mortality rate is less than 3% or so. This is actually much better than another respiratory viral illness called influenza, which you may have heard. This COVID actually has a lower mortality rate than influenza. But still, we are not confirmed because of the test ratio, and we are just in the starting situation, and this mortality rate could vary from country to country.
The big deal about this COVID is –
~ It’s very contagious
~ We don’t know much about it because it’s so new
~ There is no vaccine for it.
~ There is no specific treatment
~ And we think the incubation period is around 7 to 14 days, so 14 days is playing on the safe side.
But an epidemiological study showed, on average, the incubation period is actually closer to 7 days. Because it’s so new, we still don’t know the actual official incubation time.
When it comes to preventing the covid, they’re gonna do the same thing that you go as far as preventing the flu. The only difference is that there’s a vaccine with the flu, but for this, there’s no vaccine.
You have to be concerned too, like washing your hands frequently, disinfecting services that you come into contact with frequently, and avoiding people who have a respiratory infection.
At my hospital, we did have a suspected case of this novel covid. A young woman from Wuhan, China, flew in, and I’ll tell you more about that in the next video.
Doctor Mike Hansen, MD
Internal Medicine | Pulmonary Disease | Critical Care Medicine
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