NC health officials are investigating a possible coronavirus case in the Raleigh area
Updated Jan. 25 at 9 p.m.: An airline traveler who was tested for the coronavirus after landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport does not have the virus, the N.C. Division of Public Health reported Saturday night. The CDC reported negative results for the patient.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services is investigating a possible coronavirus infection of a person who arrived at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Thursday.
Health officials said the person, who was not identified, had recently visited Wuhan, China, where the recent coronavirus outbreak began.
The RDU case is not confirmed. State officials said the Division of Public Health is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a diagnosis. Results would then be released.
The virus has killed at least 26 people in China and infected hundreds more worldwide. At least two confirmed cases have been reported in the United States.
Though the person in North Carolina had been to Wuhan, health officials said the individual “had not visited the seafood and animal market that was linked to many early cases.”
At a news conference Friday, Dr. Zack Moore, section chief of DHHS Epidemiology Section, said the person had mild upper respiratory symptoms, those you might have with a common cold. But because the person had been in Wuhan earlier in their travels, the patient contacted their local health care provider in the United States for guidance as they traveled back home.
Airport officials said the passenger arrived on a flight from JFK Airport in New York. The person wore a mask while at the airport and did not appear to have close contact with others before being taken straight to the hospital.
“This is someone who was very aware of the situation,” Moore said. “So the people here in North Carolina were already aware and communicating with this person. ... Arrangements were made to pretty rapidly take the person where they could be fully assessed.”
The patient was taken to Duke University Hospital, where they are in isolation pending the return of test results.
“The person remains very well,” Moore said.
Those who may have been at RDU on Thursday are “not considered at risk for infection,” officials said.
“At no time were airport guests, employees and visitors at risk of infection and they do not need to take any special health precautions,” airport officials said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution, RDU followed the guidance of public health experts and completed appropriate disinfection protocols. Airport operations were not disrupted and RDU remains under normal operations.”
Moore said he doesn’t know how long it will take for test results to be returned because all testing is currently done at the CDC, and the agency is testing possible cases from across the nation. Moore said the North Carolina DHHS is ready when testing is available at the state level.
Moore said the risk of someone locally being infected is low.
“Broadly speaking, the major risks with this particular virus are for people who have traveled to Wuhan, China in the past 14 days,” Moore said at the news conference. “Although it is a major concern, and something we take very seriously, the risk to the general public in North Carolina is extremely low at this point.”
What is coronavirus?
The CDC is monitoring developments around an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel or new coronavirus. It was first identified last month in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, which is on the eastern side of the country. The affected area is growing.
Coronaviruses are a group of viruses, the most common of which cause a simple cold. However, this new coronavirus infection gets down into the lungs, which can cause pneumonia or bronchitis. People usually experience fever, coughing and difficulty breathing, because it’s a lower-respiratory infection.
The first two coronavirus cases in the U.S. were travel-related. One was reported near Seattle earlier this week, and a woman in Chicago also tested positive for coronavirus, according to The Washington Post. Also, an additional 50 people are under investigation in 22 states.
At Tennessee Tech University, a student is being kept in isolation as officials await test results for the highly contagious coronavirus. The student had “very mild symptoms,” but the school wanted to test for the virus given his travel history.
How can you get coronavirus?
Scientists aren’t positive where this new virus originated, but evidence suggests it jumped from animals to humans. Now people get it from being near someone who’s infected and breathing, talking or coughing, according to Dr. Rachel Roper, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine.
She said coronaviruses spread through the air and can live on doorknobs, railings, products in stores and even keypads where you punch in your PIN or phone number. It’s similar to how people get the flu.
Roper said washing your hands with soap and water and using hand sanitizer is a really great way to protect yourself. And people should try not to touch their faces after touching things out in public.
University settings are particularly vulnerable because of the dense population on campuses, Roper said. Places like schools, day cares, airports and amusement parks are also at risk.
“The more people you’re around, the more likely you are to be exposed to the virus,” Roper said.
The general population can protect themselves by avoiding crowds and sick people. Staying healthy is always important to prevent or fight any infection, Roper said, including getting enough sleep, eating well and exercising.
This is the third major outbreak of a coronavirus that’s infected humans in the past 17 years. The other outbreaks were in 2003 with the SARS-CoV infection that killed more than 750 people and the MERS-CoV infection in 2012 that spread to dozens of countries.
All three of these coronaviruses have originated from animals and jumped to humans, Roper said.
She said there’s a large number of live and recently killed animals in Chinese markets that people are exposed to. Breathing the air, touching cages or butchering the animals could have encouraged the transmission to humans.
People can’t get infected by eating cooked meat, even if the animal was infected, Roper said, because the cooking process would kill the coronavirus.
What to do if you think you may have coronavirus
If a person is experiencing symptoms, they should go to a hospital but call ahead first, Roper said. They should cover their mouths with a mask or a bandanna or get one as soon as they get to a healthcare facility.
To avoid exposing others to the virus, people should cough toward the floor into their elbow or sleeve. If they cough into their hand they can spread it around touching things.
Roper said people shouldn’t be worried that they’re going to die if they catch the coronavirus, because people do survive. But people who are older, overweight, have diabetes, are undergoing cancer treatment or have any underlying health concerns more likely to have difficulty fighting it.
How can coronavirus be stopped?
A vaccine is the only antidote that will eliminate the coronavirus, but the harmful infection can be contained through normal procedures from nurses and doctors, Roper said.
Scientists have done it before, and Roper said it will be easier to contain than the Ebola virus. In 2003, the world successfully stopped the transmission of SARS into humans, and Roper is hopeful the same will happen with this new virus.
Roper was the program director for the British Columbia SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative and was federally funded for SARS research. She was also part of the team that first analyzed and sequenced the SARS coronavirus genome and headed the vaccine trials.
“It’s only possible to vaccinate against viruses that we know about,” Roper said. “Anytime a new virus breaks out like this we have to pretty much start from scratch.”
She suggested having a rapid response team for making a vaccine that can be tested quickly, since this is the third time the virus has spread to humans.
The CDC is updating its website with the latest information about the coronavirus outbreak.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 3:52 PM with the headline "NC health officials are investigating a possible coronavirus case in the Raleigh area."
