The coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen, with the death toll rising to 80 and the number of confirmed infections in China reaching more than 2,700, according to CNN. The pneumonia-like virus has also spread to more than a dozen international destinations, including Japan, South Korea, France, Australia and the United States. Thus far, the Centers for Disease Control has confirmed five cases in the U.S.
The first case was detected in the state of Washington on January 21. Since then, the virus has spread to Illinois, Arizona and California, with two cases confirmed in California. According to the CDC, all of the infected patients had recently traveled to Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak began in December.
The CDC has developed a Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction test to diagnose the virus. Currently, all testing must take place on-site at the CDC, but the organization said it plans to share the test with domestic and international partners in the coming weeks. As of now, the CDC has received 110 samples of potential cases of coronavirus from 26 states for testing. Five were confirmed and 32 tested negative. The rest are pending, although more confirmed cases are expected.
"Since we began this response, I've said that with our enhanced surveillance and detection capacity, we expect to find more cases of novel coronavirus in the United States," said Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a telebriefing on January 26. "Like we did with Washington and Illinois, CDC teams will be deployed to support the investigations in Arizona and California. As always, CDC stands by to help our state, local and global partners."
As the coronavirus outbreak spreads, the CDC has recommended avoiding any nonessential travel to China's Hubei Province. Anyone who has traveled to the area and feels sick should seek immediate medical care. Coronavirus symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath. According to the CDC, symptoms may appear in as little as two days or as long as 14 days after exposure.