A novel coronavirus that first appeared in Wuhan, China, in December continues to sicken tens of thousands of people around the world – and scientists are working round the clock to better understand the virus, contain the outbreak, and treat the disease.
In the weeks since the outbreak, the disease has been named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. (The virus itself has been named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses).
UC San Francisco infectious disease expert Charles Chiu, MD, PhD, has been following the disease since its outbreak and provided the latest updates on what science has revealed about how the coronavirus is transmitted, what happens to someone who’s infected, and why a single diagnostic test may not be enough.