Sage Kiernan-Sherrow  | News Editor

Coronavirus is a multi-strand respiratory illness that, while newer, has been well-documented. A new strand, 2019-nCoV, caused an outbreak in Wuhan, China and has spread across borders, with 11 confirmed cases appearing in the U.S. — the case closest to Western being in Everett, Washington. An article published by The New York Times on Feb. 3 states that the current amount of deaths from the virus within China equate to 361, exceeding that of the SARS outbreak in 2002 and 2003. 

Jennifer King, the Medical Services Director and a Family Practitioner at Western, shared that the virus is highly contagious and spreads through close contact, but also said “the risk is very low for Oregon. We don’t have any cases or contacts from Wuhan, so it’s a very low risk for the university.”

Coronavirus’ symptoms are identical to the flu when they first begin — high fever, cough, difficulty breathing — which become more severe later on. In that regard, the Student Health and Counseling Center wants students to come in or call their health provider if any flu-like symptoms occur. 

“A lot of it is preventable,” said King, who suggested washing hands, covering coughs, staying hydrated, managing stress and not travelling to China currently as basic prevention techniques. 

At the SHCC, Western’s medical professionals will treat flu-like symptoms as they usually would, with the caveat that if they did suspect someone of having the Coronavirus, they would use standard personal protection equipment before contacting the Polk County Health Department.

“We would take direction from them as far as testing goes because we don’t have the test. We would pretty much hand that over immediately to public health and follow CDC recommendations,” said King.

On Coronavirus, King said, “every single day it’s changing as we learn more about it,” but advises against any fear on campus. King said that such an occurrence is extremely unlikely and reminded everyone that comparative to the Coronavirus, 8,000 deaths occured in the U.S last year from the basic flu alone. 

Contact the author howlnews@wou.edu

Photo by Kay Bruley