The mysterious virus that has been spreading throughout China has been confirmed in the United States, sickening a man in Washington state, The Washington Post reports.
What happened: The man was diagnosed with the mysterious illness that has killed six people and sickened hundreds of people in China, Japan, Thailand and Taiwan, sources told The Washington Post.
- The man remains in stable condition.
- The man came to the United States last week. He arrived before officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started screening travelers over concerns of the virus. As I reported for the Deseret News, the CDC held screenings at airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
Context: The mysterious virus began spreading throughout China last week, reaching multiple cities across the country. The World Health Organization reported the virus likely originated from a single spot in a Wuhan marketplace. However, it has rapidly spread since that moment.
- The WHO is considering calling for a global health emergency over the virus. The last time this happened was in 2019 over an Ebola outbreak in Congo, which led to 2,000 deaths according to CNBC.
- The WHO called for a global health emergency in 2016 over the Zika virus and 2009 over the H1N1 swine flu, CNBC reports.
Human-to-human: Dr. Zhong Nanshan, a prominent health expert from China, said Monday that the virus can spread from human to human, according to The New York Times.