In a statement made by China’s Health Minister Ma Xiaowei, he confirms that people can be spreading the disease before symptoms show.
This means that the virus is much more contagious and harder to contain than originally thought.
Ma did not offer an explanation as to why he believes this is how the virus has spread at an alarming rate.
Source: Yomiuri Shimbun
The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Dr. Nancy Messonnier said in a statement that the risk of this disease to the American public is still low.
According to her statement, CDC does not have clear evidence that the infection is spreading before symptoms occur but they are already investigation on that matter.
She also added that she hopes that this infection does not become a pandemic, but we need to start preparing for the possibility.
The Wuhan Coronavirus had infected thousands of people and killed more than 50 people in China.
Currently there are five confirmed cases in the United States – two in California and one in Arizona, Illinois, and Washington State.
If Minister Ma’s assumption is correct, it means that these five confirmed cases in the United States may have had infected others while travelling from Wuhan to the US.
Source: Ringo Chiu Reuters
However, some experts doubt this statement made by China.
According to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, he has not come across any evidence that a coronavirus is infectious during its incubation period.
Another CDC adviser Dr. Paul Offit believes that given Minister Ma’s statement, health officials should consider casting a wider net.
As the pediatric infectious disease expert at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Offit believes that Ma is right – that Wuhan coronavirus can spread during its incubation period, as Measles, Chicken Pox, Mumps, and other known diseases spread that way.
However, he remains optimistic that the US can control and contain this virus before the outbreak becomes out of hand.