The new coronavirus, 2019 n-CoV, continues to spread in China, and cases are being diagnosed in many other countries, including the U.S. In some of those countries, including Germany and Vietnam, people who have not visited China have been diagnosed. With initial symptoms that resemble other diseases, many people are wondering how to know whether to seek medical help.

With the new coronavirus now in the US, am I at risk?

The biggest risk factors for being infected with the new coronavirus are travel to China, particularly Wuhan and other areas of Hubei Province, and close contact with a person who has a suspected or confirmed n-CoV case. Without those risk factors, the chance for the general American public of catching this virus is low.

However, the outbreak is rapidly changing, and it is unclear how the situation in the U.S. will evolve in upcoming weeks.

What are the symptoms of 2019 n-CoV?

Most cases of 2019 n-CoV have had fever and signs of pneumonia, like cough or shortness of breath. In some cases people are not able to breathe on their own and require the use of a ventilator. A small percentage of people die.

What should I do if I have any of these symptoms?

If you experience any of these symptoms within 14 days of travel to China, or within 14 days of coming in close contact with an individual infected with the coronavirus, you should immediately call your health care provider. It is best to call ahead before going to a clinic or emergency room.

Your health care provider will evaluate you with the help of your state’s public health department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If your travel history and reported symptoms fit with n-CoV infection, you may be tested for the virus. Right now that test can be performed only at the CDC, so your health care provider would send samples to the CDC for testing.

What’s the big concern with this virus?

For the novel coronavirus from Wuhan, there is no vaccine, and we’re lacking a specific therapy. So it is key to limit spread through quarantine of infected individuals and by tracing of contacts.

What is so unusual about this coronavirus?

This is a coronavirus that has never been seen in humans before. It likely came from bats, and it’s much more serious than the common cold coronavirus. This is only the third time that we’ve seen a coronavirus jump species from animals to humans. The concern is that this coronavirus is going to behave like SARS and MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome in 2012, both of which were serious.

Do the deaths appear to be among people of a certain age?

Many were in older men with pre-existing conditions.

How can I stay safe?

First of all, you need not be concerned about catching this right now. Practice the same precautions that you would to prevent catching a cold. Viruses that cause the common cold are on surfaces of handrails and doorknobs, so wash your hands, use sanitizers and stay home when you are sick.

Is there a vaccine under development for the coronavirus?

Work has begun at multiple organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, to develop a vaccine for this new strain of coronavirus, known among scientists as 2019-nCoV.

Scientists are just getting started working, but their vaccine development strategy will benefit both from work that has been done on closely related viruses, such as SARS and MERS, as well as advances that have been made in vaccine technologies, such as nucleic acid vaccines, which are DNA- and RNA-based vaccines that produce the vaccine antigen in your own body.

Was work underway on this particular strain?

No, but work was ongoing for other closely related coronaviruses that have caused severe disease in humans, namely MERS and SARS. Scientists had not been concerned about this particular strain, as we did not know that it existed and could cause disease in humans until it started causing this outbreak.

How do scientists know when to work on a vaccine for a coronavirus?

Work on vaccines for severe coronaviruses has historically begun once the viruses start infecting humans.

Given that this is the third major outbreak of a new coronavirus that we have had in the past two decades and also given the severity of disease caused by these viruses, we should consider investing in the development of a vaccine that would be broadly protective against these viruses.

What does this work involve, and when might we actually have a vaccine?

This work involves designing the vaccine constructs – for example, producing the right target antigens, viral proteins that are targeted by the immune system, followed by testing in animal models to show that they are protective and safe.

Once safety and efficacy are established, vaccines can advance into clinical trials in humans. If the vaccines induce the expected immune response and protection and are found safe, they can be mass produced for vaccination of the population.

Currently, we lack virus isolates – or samples of the virus – to test the vaccines against. We also lack antibodies to make sure the vaccine is in good shape. We need the virus in order to test if the immune response induced by the vaccine works. Also, we need to establish what animals to test the vaccine on. That potentially could include mice and nonhuman primates.

Vaccine development will likely take months.

Can humans ever be safe from these types of outbreaks?

We expect that these types of outbreaks will occur for the foreseeable future in irregular intervals.

To try to prevent large outbreaks and pandemics, we need to improve surveillance in both humans and animals worldwide as well as invest in risk assessment, allowing scientists to evaluate the potential threat to human health from the virus, for detected viruses.

We believe that global action is needed to invest in novel vaccine approaches that can be employed quickly whenever a new virus like the current coronavirus – and also viruses similar to Zika, Ebola or influenza – emerges. Currently, responses to emerging pathogens are mostly reactive, meaning they start after the outbreak happens. We need a more proactive approach supported by continuous funding.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.