The Mirror | Van Nuys High School | Mar 2020 | Volume 106 |Issue 3

8COVER STORY
FEBRUARY 2020 vnhsmirror.com
CORONAVIRUS
INFLUENZA
WHOOPING COUGH
TARGET:
YOU
CORONAVIRUS: Not
but public health offi
BY ANI TUTUNJYAN & MHAR TENORIO
THE MIRROR STAFF
Six cases of coronavirus, a new virus that
first appeared in Wuhan, China last
month, have been confirmed in California.
One case each in Los Angeles and
Orange County and four in Northern California
have been reported.
These reports follow after the first cases in the
United States were confirmed in Boston, Washington,
Arizona and Chicago. There are a total of 11
cases nationwide.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared
the coronavirus a global health emergency,
as the virus has spread to 23 countries worldwide.
Globally, at least 14,557 cases have been confirmed.
This number, however, continues to
increase over a thousand each day. It has killed at
least 304 people. Only one death has been reported
outside of China so far — a man in the Philippines.
The total number of people infected with coronavirus
in mainland China surpassed those infected
with the SARS during the 2002-2003 epidemic.
The virus is thought to have originated in Wuhan,
China, a city almost three times the population
of Los Angeles.
Coronavirus is considered a zoonotic disease —
initially transmitted from animals to humans. Most
of the people who initially got sick in Wuhan had a
link to large seafood and live animal markets.
As of now, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) has confirmed two person-toperson
transmissions in the U.S.
It was spread from a woman who recently traveled
to China to her husband upon returning to
Chicago. The other case followed a similar pattern.
The first U.S. case was detected in an unnamed
man who spent time in Wuhan. Four days after his
arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, he
felt ill and sought medical care and doctors were
able to confirm the virus on Jan. 21.
INFLUENZA: Vaccine m
BY ANI TUTUNJYAN
THE MIRROR STAFF
The United States may be headed into a
bad flu season, as the Centers for Disease
and Prevention (CDC) figures show “widespread”
flu activity in Puerto Rico and 48
states with the season beginning unusually early.
A total of 140,000 to 250,000 flu hospitalizations
and between 8,200 and 20,000 deaths have been
estimated between Oct. 1, 2019 and Jan. 18, 2020 by
the CDC, with the highest rates of hospitalization
and death rates among children ages zero to four
and adults ages 65 and over.
These statistics shot up almost to the peak
WHOOPING COUGH: O
BY MHAR TENORIO
THE MIRROR STAFF
Pertussis, more commonly known as
whooping cough, is a highly-contagious
respiratory disease that induces violent
coughs that sound like a “whoop.”
Caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, it
can only be found in humans, although it can infect
anyone, infants aged one-year-old or younger are
most susceptible to the disease.
Even though 5,066 cases of pertussis were
reported to the Centers for Disease and Prevention
(CDC) in 2019, only one person died. In Los Angeles
alone accounted for almost 40 percent of the
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