What parents and pregnant people need to know about the Wuhan coronavirus
- There have been 11 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus in the US, and it's been declared a global health emergency.
- But infectious disease experts say parents of young children and pregnant women should remain more concerned about flu, which has infected at least 15 million people in the US over the past four months.
- It's possible that due to a "quirk of biology," children may actually be protected against the novel coronavirus, Time reported.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
The first case of a person-to-person transmission of the Wuhan coronavirus in the US was confirmed last week. Despite this development - and the fact that the coronavirus been declared a global health emergency - specialists say pregnant people and parents of children - do not need to take special precautions outside of those that have been recommended for the general population.
In fact, experts say parents of children and pregnant people should continue to be more vigilant when it comes to guarding against the flu, which has infected at least 15 million Americans over the past four months, and kills more Americans than any other virus.
So far, this year, 2,900 people have died from the flu in the US, including 27 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The flu is a far greater risk to pregnant women and children than the coronavirus is at this point
"From a risk standpoint, I would worry more about flu right now," Dr. Vanessa Raabe, assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases at NYU Langone Health, told Insider.
Since Chinese authorities first identified the outbreak of the coronavirus - formally called 2019-nCoV - at the end of December in the industrial city of Wuhan, more than 17,000 people have been infected and the death toll has reached at least 360.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common among animals and spread among people. They typically lead to cold-like symptoms or pneumonia, but can also be severe, as was the case with the outbreaks of SARS and the MERS. The novel coronavirus is marked by symptoms of fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
It's possible that children may be less likely to contract Wuhan coronavirus. Or, if they do develop the virus, they may develop less severe symptoms, according to a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine last Thursday. The authors drew that conclusion after analyzing the characteristics of the first 425 people who were infected with coronavirus in Wuhan. The median age was 59 and the youngest person to die from the illness was 36.
At that point, no one younger than 15 had developed the novel coronavirus.
However, since that study was conducted, a 9-month-old baby in Beijing was diagnosed with 2019-nCoV.
It's possible that children are less likely to develop the novel coronavirus than adults
"It's possible that, due to some quirk of biology, children are simply less susceptible than adults to 2019-nCoV infection; their cells may be less hospitable to the virus, making it more difficult for 2019-nCoV to replicate and jump to other people," Time reported.
When it comes to the flu, children, especially those younger than 5, are more at risk of developing serious complications. A 4-year-old girl from Iowa, for example, became blind after contracting the flu this year.
Pregnant women are at an increased risk of developing complications from the flu, and so are their unborn babies.The CDC recommends anyone over the age of 6 months get the flu vaccine.
Wuhan coronavirus symptoms can closely mirror flu symptoms. Getting the flu vaccine can also mean protecting against experiencing symptoms that are reminiscent of the novel coronavirus, which may offer some added peace of mind.
Store-bought surgical masks likely won't help protect against the Wuhan coronavirus
There's currently no available vaccine to protect against the novel coronavirus. While some people have taken to wearing surgical masks to guard against infection, experts say this won't help much unless the mask is hospital-grade.
"We don't actually recommend it," Raab said of wearing store-bought masks as a protective measure. "They don't have a tight seal on the face, so you can still get air going in through the sides and to the top and the bottom."
However, for a person who is sick and aiming to protect others, wearing a store-bought surgical mask may be beneficial.
The CDC has advised against all nonessential travel to China. Travelers arriving to the US from China are being screened with questionnaires and are being observed for symptoms.
The organization is urging people to take the same basic general precautions they take all year long against developing any other virus or infection. That includes frequent handwashing, covering a cough or sneeze with a tissue or sleeve, and wiping down surfaces.
"The best thing you can do is try to stay away from other people who are sick," Raab said, "and do the same thing that you would be doing to try to prevent things like flu."
- Read more:
- When you should be worried about the Wuhan coronavirus, which has killed at least 81 people
- The World Health Organization just declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency because it could spread to countries that aren't prepared
- The Wuhan coronavirus has spread from person to person in the US for the first time - to the husband of a woman who went to China