If a presidential Impeachment trial weren't unsettling enough, people are clearly rattled by the coronavirus that has killed over a hundred people in China. It is popping up now in other countries, including the U.S. There have been no reported cases in Massachusetts, but local drug stores are selling out of face masks, the kind designed to keep out airborne pathogens. And now, Logan Airport is screening for the illness. WGBH News' All Things Considered host Arun Rath spoke with Dr. David Hooper, the head of the Infection Control Unit at Mass. General, to learn more about coronoavirus.
Dr. David Hooper: This is a new coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that's very large. They include viruses that cause the common cold, but they also include viruses like the SARS virus that hit in 2002 and 2003, and the current MERS virus in the Middle East. Both of those are coronaviruses and they can cause more serious infections. This particular coronavirus is most closely related to the SARS virus. We're learning a lot about it because it's very new. The original cases were identified in people who had traveled to a particular market in Wuhan, China, an animal market. That is thought to be the place where it perhaps first jumped to humans. But then there have been subsequent cases that have made it clear that this virus can be transmitted from person to person. So, the numbers have been increasing quite substantially since the first recognition of the disease in late December.
Arun Rath: We're hearing of thousands of cases in China, a number of fatalities. Do we have a sense of the fatality rate of this disease?
Hooper: I think it's too early to have a strong understanding of the fatality rate. I can tell you that what we know as of this morning is there have been roughly 4,500 cases identified and about106 deaths. The death rate from that is of concern, but it's not as high as some of the avian influenza viruses we were concerned about in earlier years. We're still staying tuned, monitoring very carefully. It does seem that the people who may have higher risk for more severe disease and even fatalities appear to be ones who are elderly and persons who have other underlying co-morbid diseases, which isn't too surprising. We have to be vigilant and I always have a great deal of respect for these viruses and what their capabilities are. Person to person spread is what challenges us and we don't yet know fully at what point this virus can be transmissible from person to person. Is it before symptoms occur, which is more challenging, or is it after symptoms occur, which is more easily managed?
Rath: When these outbreaks occur, they frighten people. There's the recommendation not to travel to China unless it's necessary. We've also seen local drug stores selling out of these face masks. Can you tell people just how concerned they should be? Beyond not traveling to China, to Wuhan, what should people be doing?
Hooper: There are no confirmed cases in the Boston area and only five confirmed cases in the U.S. Our risk of being exposed is quite, quite low at this point. So, going and buying masks at this juncture is, I think, is not appropriate. What is appropriate? We're in the middle of flu season. That's a much higher risk to us and so covering your cough, washing your hands, staying away from people who have respiratory illnesses of any kind are just important, common sense things. Most importantly, if you haven't already gotten your flu shot, get one. Flu is much more of a risk to us at this point than the new coronavirus.
Rath: Tell us how things would work if you were to get a call from Logan Airport with someone saying, 'we have someone who was in Wuhan and is showing suspicious symptoms — what do we do?'
Hooper: We would instruct them and they should already have protocols in place, for putting a mask on the patient. Depending on how ill the patient was, we would have a conversation with public health officials and then depending on how ill the patient was, discuss whether they would go to a home or whether they would come to our emergency department and be seen. If they came to our emergency department, we have protocols in place that we've had in place for MERS and previously for SARS of how we respond to these. We have healthcare workers who are trained in appropriate personal protective equipment — the use of gowns and gloves and masks and face shields, eye protection, which is what we're using now at the recommendation of the CDC. Those would be implemented by healthcare providers. The patient would be appropriately put in a single isolation room. Then, through discussions with public health officials, we would do appropriate medical testing because this might or might not be the coronoavirus. We want to make sure that we don't miss something else that this might be. Then if the patient, getting all the details right, clearly met the definition that the CDC has for a person of interest, PUI, then we would gather specimens, send them to our public health lab here, and then the lab would send it to the CDC.
The other aspect of this is that Mass. General is one of the ten regional special pathogen treatment centers in the country. We do a lot of training on these types of pathogens of special concern and have protocols in place for responding to them. We had that framework to start with, and then we've updated it and pulled things out to activate our response systems now with the emergence of this virus in China and the cases starting to appear outside of China. We're trying our best to be ahead of the curve as much as we can and to be prepared. Again, I think flu is much more of a concern to the general public.
