(KFTK) – Eric Robert filled-in for Dr Randy Tobler this weekend, and got the latest information about the coronavirus from Dr Alexandre Lacasse, an SSM St Mary's infectious disease specialist.
"At this point in time, the outbreak is not here. Can it come here? Yes. Will it come here? Probably. We don't know how the big scope of it will be," says Dr Lacasse.
Dr Lacasse says the coronavirus is not new, "every season we have different viruses including influenza that causes the flu, and other types of common cold viruses that are in circulation. Coronavurus is something that all the ID [infectious disease] specialists have seen before, and it's not something new. What makes it new, is it's a new strain."
Lacasse told Eric Robert that the virus usually causes the common cold, "but at this time, for unclear reasons, has aquired the potential to create much more severe illness."
He says the trasmission is similar to any other repiratory virus, "it's from person-to-person, when people cough and sneeze, when people are sick with fever, the virus gets transmitted from person-to-person."
Dr Lacasse says the ways to stop the spread are quite simple, when you have a fever and are coughing, you should stay home. "Handwashing remains, for centuires, as the main barrier that we can have against this virus."
Read what the Centers for Disease Control say about the Coronavirus HERE