EUGENE, Ore. - Seventeen people have died and more than 500 are infected with the Wuhan coronavirus.
Officials confirm it has spread to the U.S. with one person traveling from Wuhan, China, to Seattle infected with the virus.
Health officials say the Washington state man is currently in quarantine, making the chances of it spreading here very unlikely.
He's infected with the Wuhan novel coronavirus, an important distinction because in fact there are various types of coronavirus associated with everything from pneumonia to the common cold.
Creswell resident Petrene Moreland was sickened by one of those other types of coronavirus.
"I knew something was wrong," Moreland said. "I could not breathe, so I rushed to the hospital. They did all kinds of tests; I was there for 3 days."
She was told she had an infection and was sent home.
Two weeks later ...
"I got it again," she said. "I could not breathe, and so Iwent back into the hospital and they came back and told me that I had coronavirus."
Moreland had coronavirus, but one of the less serious strains - not the Wuhan coronavirus.
Most symptoms resemble the common cold. This includes a cough and high fever.
"We've had coronavirus for a long time," said Dr. Richard Leman with the Oregon Health Authority. "It's just that in this case we got one that's acting differently and appears to be causing more severe illness."
But to Moreland, all she heard was coronavirus from her doctors - and on the evening news.
"I did not know it was different, I thought it was the same thing," she said. "I thought, well, why did they even send me home?"
All public transportation in Wuhan has been temporarily shut down, and it's now mandatory to wear face masks to prevent the virus from spreading.
The outbreak couldn't come at a worse time, with people traveling for the Chinese New Year.
Five major airports in the U.S. have already started screenings.
But here in Oregon, Leman said you're more likely to contract the flu than the deadly virus.
"If there's someone that has this in his travel to China and he has fever and cough and shortness of breath, that those people get evaluated," Leman said.
The World Health Organization met Wednesday in Geneva to discuss the outbreak.
They will meet again Thursday to decide whether or not to declare an international emergency.