The risk of the coronavirus ending up in Marshalltown is low, Marshall County Public Health Nurse Pat Thompson said Thursday.

The new, also called novel, virus has infected six people in the United States, including two in Chicago.

Two further cases have been identified in California, one in Arizona and one in Washington.

In China, where the virus began, 9,000 people have contracted it and more than 200 have died.

The reason behind the spread of the virus is because it is new.

“There is no vaccine and our bodies do not have the antibodies to fight it,” Thompson said. “We have not been exposed to it.”

However, unlike the past pandemic of the 1918 Spanish flu, the United States has means of protecting people and preventing the spread of a virus, which causes a fever, cough and shortness of breath. The symptoms generally appear two to 14 days after exposure.

Thompson is confident the country has all of the necessary capabilities to combat the threat.

The Centers for Disease Control is staying on top of the situation, she said.

“There are people who are not sleeping at night that are making sure things go well,” Thompson said. “There are very smart people that do this.”

On the chance the coronavirus would come to Marshalltown or Marshall County, Thompson said she would know about it. When the ebola virus landed on the shores of the United States in 2014, Thompson received regular updates on the health of people in Marshalll County, even though the virus was in states such as Texas, Maryland, Ohio and New York.

“I knew everything that was going on in the county,” she said.

Thompson would be in immediate contact the CDC and the Iowa Department of Public Health if the coronavirus arrived.

“The risk to the general public is low at this time,” Thompson said. “The flu is a more significant threat to Iowans.”

She urged people to wash their hands frequently, cough into their elbows and stay home if they feel sick. Also, if there is a suspicion that the new coronavirus was encountered Thompson said notify medical personnel so proper protections can be provided to people in emergency rooms, urgent cares and clinics.

OTHER CORONAVIRUSES

The new coronavirus, while it is not known how it is being spread, is not completely foreign. The county nurse said there are four identified strains of coronavirus and three are concerning, one of which is the novel virus.

The other two include the SARS virus of 2003 which got more than 8,000 people sick in China and 774 cases resulted in fatalities.

The other coronavirus is MERS which is primarily found in the Arabian Peninsula and claims the lives of three or four out of 10 infected people.

The remaining coronaviruses cause cold-like symptoms such as:

• runny nose

• eadache

• cough

• sore throat

• fever

• general feeling of being unwell.