8 COVER STORY FEBRUARY 2020 vnhsmirror.com
CORONAVIRUS
INFLUENZA WHOOPING COUGH
TARGET:
YOU
CORONAVIRUS: Not but public health offi BY ANI TUTUNJYAN & MHAR TENORIO
S
THE MIRROR STAFF
ix cases of coronavirus, a new virus that first appeared in Wuhan, China last month, have been confirmed in California. One case each in Los Angeles and Orange County and four in Northern California have been reported. These reports follow after the first cases in the United States were confirmed in Boston, Washington, Arizona and Chicago. There are a total of 11 cases nationwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus a global health emergency, as the virus has spread to 23 countries worldwide. Globally, at least 14,557 cases have been confirmed. This number, however, continues to increase over a thousand each day. It has killed at least 304 people. Only one death has been reported outside of China so far — a man in the Philippines. The total number of people infected with coronavirus in mainland China surpassed those infected with the SARS during the 2002-2003 epidemic. The virus is thought to have originated in Wuhan, China, a city almost three times the population of Los Angeles. Coronavirus is considered a zoonotic disease — initially transmitted from animals to humans. Most of the people who initially got sick in Wuhan had a link to large seafood and live animal markets. As of now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed two person-toperson transmissions in the U.S. It was spread from a woman who recently traveled to China to her husband upon returning to Chicago. The other case followed a similar pattern. The first U.S. case was detected in an unnamed man who spent time in Wuhan. Four days after his arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he felt ill and sought medical care and doctors were able to confirm the virus on Jan. 21.
INFLUENZA: Vaccine m BY ANI TUTUNJYAN
T
THE MIRROR STAFF
he United States may be headed into a bad flu season, as the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) figures show “widespread” flu activity in Puerto Rico and 48 states with the season beginning unusually early. A total of 140,000 to 250,000 flu hospitalizations and between 8,200 and 20,000 deaths have been estimated between Oct. 1, 2019 and Jan. 18, 2020 by the CDC, with the highest rates of hospitalization and death rates among children ages zero to four and adults ages 65 and over. These statistics shot up almost to the peak
WHOOPING COUGH: O BY MHAR TENORIO
P
THE MIRROR STAFF
ertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, is a highly-contagious respiratory disease that induces violent coughs that sound like a “whoop.” Caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, it can only be found in humans, although it can infect anyone, infants aged one-year-old or younger are most susceptible to the disease. Even though 5,066 cases of pertussis were reported to the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) in 2019, only one person died. In Los Angeles alone accounted for almost 40 percent of the
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