One Dead in Pneumonia Outbreak from New Coronavirus in China

Scientists release a draft genome of the virus that has been identified in 41 patients.

Written byAmy Schleunes

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Health authorities in Wuhan, China, reported on Saturday the death of a 61-year-old man in a mysterious pneumonia outbreak linked to a seafood market, according to Reuters. The patient was one of 41 confirmed cases, seven of whom are severely ill, the World Health Organization (WHO) wrote in a statement published yesterday (January 12). The Wuhan Municipal Health Committee confirmed that the man who died had underlying health issues, including abdominal tumors and chronic liver disease, reports STAT.

Last week, the Chinese state media reported that the pneumonia outbreak was caused by a novel coronavirus. Other types of coronavirus can cause a cold and more serious infections, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

On Saturday, Chinese researchers published a draft genome of the coronavirus. According to their report, the virus “is similar to some of the betacoronaviruses detected in ...

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Meet the Author

Amy Schleunes
A former intern at The Scientist, Amy studied neurobiology at Cornell University and later earned her MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She is a Los Angeles–based writer, editor, and communications strategist who collaborates on nonfiction books for Harper Collins and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and also teaches writing at Johns Hopkins University CTY. Her favorite projects involve sharing the insights of science and medicine.
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