Inside STAT: U.S. hospitals and states ready for more cases of novel virus from China

A MAN IN HIS 30S, WHO WAS THE FIRST U.S. CASE OF A NOVEL CORONAVIRUS SPREADING IN CHINA, WAS TREATED AT PROVIDENCE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER IN EVERETT, WASH. (OLIVIA VANNI/THE HERALD VIA AP)

U.S. health officials this week confirmed the first local case of a novel coronavirus that has emerged in Wuhan, China. But states and hospitals were already preparing for the possibility of a U.S. case. The first step for gearing up for such emergencies is properly identifying patients who may be symptomatic. The disease causes pneumonia- and flu-like symptoms, which will be a challenge to distinguish since flu season is in full swing in the U.S. Experts, though, warn against treating the current outbreak as an Ebola-like catastrophe. “It’s prudent to use some caution, but the extremely high levels of care that needed to be implemented for Ebola … aren't yet warranted here," says Dr. Eric Toner, a public health scientist at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security. STAT’s Andrew Joseph and I have the story here.