● SARS Outbreak

You may remember that back in 2002 and 2003 there was an outbreak in China of the SARS
virus that actually affected more than 8,000 people. And of those 8,000 there were 774 people
that actually died, fortunately, there have been no reported cases since 2004. According to the
CDC in the United States another type of coronavirus in the Middle East respiratory syndrome
coronavirus also known as MERS.
It was first reported in 2012 and continues to be a cause of infection in Saudi Arabia and other
countries around the Arabian Peninsula. Interestingly and important to know is that both SARS
and MERS seem to have emerged from the animal kingdom. Meaning that the virus started as
an animal virus but then was able to infect humans around those infected animals and then
those infected humans were actually able to pass the virus to other humans. SARS is believed
to come through bats and a type of cat that lives in China and other places in Asia and MERS
came through camels in late 2019.

● Novel Coronavirus
Just a couple of months ago a novel coronavirus emerged. This is a new type of coronavirus
that has not been previously identified. Which is one of the big reasons it's so widely discussed
in the media right now. This new virus is called the 2019 novel coronavirus. Although most of us
are anticipating that it will have a name change at some point in the future. Because it can't
always be called the novel coronavirus.
So, this is a new version of the coronavirus that likely started in an animal source just like SARS
and MERS. But now it is apparently spreading from human to human and genetic analysis has
actually been discovered. That likely emerges from a virus that is genetically related to SARS
it's not a new form of SARS but it's somewhat genetically related. According to officials, this
novel virus seems to have originated in the area of Wuhan city in China.

Currently, there are thousands of people affected by this virus in Wuhan City. And the Chinese
officials have placed potentially millions of people in quarantine in an attempt to control. The
w-h-o believes that the first individuals to have contracted the infection likely became infected.
In November 2019 Chinese officials identified the new virus. In December 2019 the w-h-o
named it the 2019 novel coronavirus.