The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now monitoring a dangerous new outbreak of the respiratory system known as the coronavirus. Fifteen cases have been confirmed in the United States.  The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to over 1,000 people (almost all in mainland China), and has confirmed tens of thousands of cases. There is no sign of a slowdown anytime soon as death’s keep piling.  The virus originally was spread from an animal source to a human, but now it seems that the virus is spreading from just person to person. Experts say they still lack full statistics to say how dangerous this virus really is. 

This specific disease is extremely contagious and just one person carrying the disease is susceptible to spreading it to up to 14 different people. The disease has become so serious that the United States evacuated American citizens from Wuhan, China. Following evacuation, hundreds of Americans were placed into quarantine and monitored for the deadly virus. Citizens were expected to spend many days in quarantine on military bases under a strict and highly unusual protocol that officials have enforced to slow the spread of the outbreak. This has been done in hopes that this disease will not cause an outbreak in other countries like it had in Wuhan.

The worst thing about this terrible disease is how quickly it spreads. Without proper care and careful evaluations of passengers on international flights and other means of transportation, coronavirus has the ability to infect many in a short period of time. One case of this was on a cruise ship associated with the Princess Cruise Lines that had 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members on board which was quarantined in Yokohama, Japan. Due to the nine confirmed cases of coronavirus on this ship no one was permitted to leave. If authorities did not monitor passengers and catch these cases of the virus there was a possibility for over 3,000 people to carry the virus and spread it all throughout Japan. 

There has been several cases of infected people in China that are displaying no symptoms. Expert Ian Mackay from the World Health Organization states, “We’re possibly looking at a virus that’s going to be with us for a long time, possibly forever.” However, there is no real evidence to prove that this illness has been spreading from human to human. If control measures are effective, and transmission slows so that each infected person contaminates no more than one other person, the current outbreak could possibly die out.  

Currently there is no known cure or vaccine to treat the coronavirus. However, scientists have replicated the virus, which could allow for early detection and treatment in people who have the virus but are not yet showing symptoms. Additionally, if scientists can manage to replicate the virus and find a cure it would be possible that the spread of the disease could come to an end.