Corona virus is named Coronavirus because corona is derived from the word crown, this is so because this virus appears like a crown under a microscope, like there's a crown on the top of the virus. They have four or five different kinds, they can cause common diseases among us, like ranging from the common cold to mild or moderate respiratory illnesses.
This virus affects animals, we witnessed that the corona virus transferred from animal species into the human population. The virus has attracted the attention of many people because it was not familiar with the humans in the past. It was never seen in the humans before. The main idea is that the virus may have jumped from the animals to the humans in some sort of way, and then begun infecting people. Up till now, more than million people have died because of this virus. On top of that, more than 6 million cases are reported. So, people are concerned, because we don't yet know exactly how potent the disease will be or how far it will spread. When a new virus emerges, we often have to learn much more about it, and one of the things that we question is how does it transmit from person to person?
We know that most respiratory viruses are spread by large droplets that come out when people cough and sneeze, and stay aloft usually for about six feet in front of them. They land on surfaces, and then can also be transmitted between person to person by touching those surfaces, such as door doors or other surfaces. Other viruses can spread in the air and stay aloft for a longer period of time in small droplet nuclei. For this current 2019 coronavirus, we're not yet sure exactly whether it is droplet or airborne transmission, so we're erring on the side of caution and taking protections if it was spread by the airborne route. We’re still learning a lot about this 2019 novel coronavirus, to understand how dangerous it might be. Up till now, there are cases all over the world. We know that some travelers have brought the virus to other countries, including the United States.
I think one of the main things to keep in mind is that this is respiratory virus season, and we have other respiratory viruses like influenzas we need to take precautions because we know we have thousands of cases and thousands of deaths in many countries every year from influenza. Given the virus transmission was noticed in China, we have a travel alert that was issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So, at this time, until we know more, avoid non-essential travel to China and other infected counties. Johns Hopkins Health System and health systems across the nation are busy right now preparing to safely identify, isolate, evaluate, and care for patients with the 2019 novel coronavirus.
We have the capability of doing this safely by utilizing personal protective equipment, by implementing travel screenings so that we can quickly identify patients who have risk factors for the disease, and then implementing isolation precautions, the use of personal protective equipment, and other measures to make sure that we limit the spread of the virus. At the Johns Hopkins Hospital and throughout our health system, we routinely care for patients infected with diseases that are spread by the airborne route, so we have expertise to do this safely. When a new virus comes along that has unknown risks, we have extra measures that we can put in place, including our biocontainment unit that can advise us and put plans in place to safely care for these patients.
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