Hi I'm doctor Dean Blumberg and I'm
professor and chief of pediatric
infectious diseases at UC Davis
Children's Hospital and I'm happy to
answer a few frequently asked questions
on this novel coronavirus today.
The first question is what are the common
signs and symptoms of coronavirus?
So coronavirus is,
we know that there's common Corona
viruses that cause colds, fever, cough,
runny nose usually lasts a few days.
No problem, people get over it,
but there are more severe Corona viruses
such as the SARS coronavirus, Meyers,
Middle Eastern Respiratory syndrome.
And then there's this novel coronavirus
from Wuhan that just started and this
one is one that can cause more severe
symptoms and it can cause diseases,
including pneumonia.
But it starts just the same as
all the other coronaviruses.
The second question is,
will we see this in Sacramento an when
I wish I knew the answer to that so
we know that this is a novel virus.
Nobody's been exposed to it,
so we're all susceptible to it.
That means if it gets into a population,
it will probably spread and we'll
all end up getting it.
On the other hand,
there's a lot of efforts to control it,
and so there's a lot of efforts
to screen people to diagnose them.
If there's any suspicion that
they have coronavirus,
then they'll be isolated and quarantined,
and so in that way the
spread might be limited,
and so we'll just have to
see which way it goes.
Next question is,
people continue to hear of person
to person an contact transmission.
And how is this transmitted person to person?
So the usual way it's transmitted.
The most common way.
Is by droplet transmission by people
coughing or sneezing droplets?
These are pretty heavy droplets,
so eventually gravity takes over
and they end up ending up on the
ground where they're not going
to be infectious anymore.
But while they're in the air,
they can travel up to six feet.
So if you're within somebody
within 6 feet of somebody who's
symptomatic and coughing and sneezing,
then you could breathe that in
and then you could get infected.
It can also be transmitted by
touching surfaces.
If that coughing or sneezing.
If those droplets end up
contaminating surfaces.
Like computer keyboards or door handles
or other frequently touch surfaces,
then if you touch them soon
after their contaminated,
then and then you touch your nose or
your mouth or your eye then you can
get you can get infected that way.
And so that's why we recommend
frequent hand washing when you
touch these high touch surface is
these frequently touch surface is.
Next question is should I be concerned
traveling to other Asian countries?
The vast majority of cases have been
in China and 80% of the cases in China.
Have been in Hubei province where Wuhan
is the epicenter of this outbreak.
There's been very limited transmission
in countries outside of China.
Very limited transmission in
Japan and Thailand,
so there's no travel restrictions
recommended by the State
Department at the present time,
and I agree with that.
If you're traveling to those areas,
it's fine to travel there.
But it's recommended not
to travel to China now.
If, unless you really have to,
the next question is about what
about imports coming from China.
We have a lot of imports.
Coming from China and can
we catch it from that?
Well, you could think like maybe
if people coughed or sneezed on the
cargo and then people are touching it,
picking it up, unloading it.
Maybe it could be transmitted that way,
but that's not going to happen.
The virus doesn't survive very long
on surface is so if it's taking a
day or two by air to get into this
country or on a cargo ship taking
much longer to get in this country,
those products are going to be safe and
the same with food items from China.
It's not known to be transmitted
via the foodborne route.
So you'll be perfectly safe with that.
It's only transmitted if people
from surface is.
If people are coughing or sneezing
on the surface and then you
touch it really soon after,
so otherwise all those products are safe.
Chinese food is safe.
All of that is safe.
So thank you for watching and
I hope this has been useful and
that it's answered some of your
frequently asked questions.
Thank you.