China reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, caused by a novel coronavirus, currently designated 2019-nCoV. Mounting cases and deaths pose major public health and governance challenges. China's imposition of an unprecedented cordon sanitaire (a guarded area preventing anyone from leaving) in Hubei Province has also sparked controversy concerning its implementation and effectiveness.Cases have now spread to at least 4 continents. As of January 28, there are more than 4500 confirmed cases (98% in China) and more than 100 deaths. 1 In this Viewpoint, we describe the current status of 2019-nCoV, assess the response, and offer proposals for strategies to bring the outbreak under control. Current StatusChina rapidly isolated the novel coronavirus on January 7 and shared viral genome data with the international community 3 days later. Since that time, China has reported increasing numbers of cases and deaths, partly attributable to wider diagnostic testing as awareness of the outbreak grows. Health officials have identified evidence of transmission along a chain of 4 "generations" (a person who originally contracted the virus from a nonhuman source infected someone else, who infected another individual, who then infected another individual), suggesting sustained human-to-human transmission. Current estimates are that 2019-nCoV has an incubation period of 2 to 14 days, with potential asymptomatic transmission. 1,2 Multiple countries have confirmed travel-associated cases

Disease caused by group A streptococci (GAS) in tropical regions often takes the form of impetigo, whereas pharyngitis tends to predominate in temperate zones. GAS derived from asymptomatic throat infections and pyoderma lesions of rural Aboriginal Australians were evaluated for phylogenetic distant emm genes, which represent ecological markers for tissue site preference. On the basis of the percentage of total isolates from a given tissue, emm pattern A-C organisms exhibited a stronger predilection for the throat, whereas pattern D organisms preferred the skin. Only 16% of isolates collected by active surveillance displayed pattern A-C, which reflects the low incidence of oropharyngeal infection. Importantly, most (70%) pattern A-C organisms were isolated from skin sores, despite their innate tendency to infect the throat. Combined with findings from nontropical populations, analysis of the data supports the hypothesis that GAS tissue preferences are genetically predetermined and that host risk factors for infection strongly influence the differential reproduction of individual clones.

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Of the 46 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) African region (AFRO), 43 are implementing Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) guidelines to improve their abilities to detect, confirm, and respond to high-priority communicable and noncommunicable diseases. IDSR provides a framework for strengthening the surveillance, response, and laboratory core capacities required by the revised International Health Regulations [IHR (2005)]. In turn, IHR obligations can serve as a driving force to sustain national commitments to IDSR strategies. The ability to report potential public health events of international concern according to IHR (2005) relies on early warning systems founded in national surveillance capacities. Public health events reported through IDSR to the WHO Emergency Management System in Africa illustrate the growing capacities in African countries to detect, assess, and report infectious and noninfectious threats to public health. The IHR (2005) provide an opportunity to continue strengthening national IDSR systems so they can characterize outbreaks and respond to public health events in the region.