Could Coronavirus Become An Annual Threat?

Citing another virus strain that ended up sticking around for longer than a year, some doctors say it's possible that the new Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) isn't just a 2019-2020 problem.

Doctors and researchers are looking to the 2019-nCoV stain and seeing a lot of similarities between it and the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, reports USA Today. These professionals find the similarities unfortunate because the H1N1 strain has had some staying power, though it hasn't been as brutal since it first came on the scene.

“It’s very daunting to contain a respiratory virus, as we saw with H1N1,” says Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, according to USA Today. “This coronavirus might establish itself as one of our community coronaviruses that we contend with for some time during respiratory virus season.”

While pessimists can reference the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, optimists could counter by pointing to the 2003 strain of Coronavirus that caused SARS. That strain was controlled to the point that it was stopped from spreading among humans. However, Rachel Graham, a public health professor at the University of North Carolina cautions that SARS was easier to control.

On America’s side in the fight against 2019-nCoV is the fact that it didn't start close by like the swine flu did, says Nancy Messonier, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. Since 2019-nCoV originated in China and not nearby, healthcare professionals in the United States were able to prepare some before the strain came stateside, says Messonier.

To ready USA Today’s full story on the new Coronavirus and how it compares to past virus strains, click here.