Update: February 3, 2020 | 3 p.m.

Fordham University is continuing to closely monitor the emerging public health problem regarding an outbreak of coronavirus (novel coronavirus [2019-nCoV]) in China. University Health Services has been keeping up to date with the information provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and New York City Department of Health officials, and is monitoring the progress of the outbreak in the United States and abroad carefully.

There are currently no confirmed nor suspected cases of this virus at Fordham University.

At this time, it is believed that the virus incubation period is from 2 to 14 days and infection can result in mild to severe illness. The symptoms may be similar to the flu or the common cold. In more severe cases, coronavirus can cause pneumonia and other complications, especially in infants, older individuals, and those with underlying health conditions.

Prevention is very important. Ways to stay healthy:
• Wash your hands frequently with soap and water.
• Increase your fluid intake.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, mouth, and face.
• Keep home/personal spaces clean, disinfect common surfaces.
• Avoid contact with sick people.
• Cover your cough with tissue/paper towel or the crook of your elbow.
• If you have not received an influenza (flu) vaccine this year, do get one as soon as possible.
• If you are sick, please stay home and contact your medical provider.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not currently recommend the use of face masks among the general public to prevent coronavirus exposure. While limited person-to-person spread among close contacts has been detected, this virus is not currently spreading in the community in the United States.

Any student experiencing symptoms should call University Health Services (UHS) immediately:

• Lincoln Center: (212) 636-7160
• Rose Hill: (718) 817-4160
After business hours, contact the Department of Public Safety at (718) 817-2222. Someone will be available to take your call at this number 24/7.

Faculty and staff experiencing symptoms should call their primary care physician immediately for direction. Anyone experiencing symptoms should avoid class/work, and stay at home or in your residence hall room until you have consulted with a health care provider.

Students who have been in China in the last 14 days must contact University Health Services. They will be monitored through University Health Services.

Travelers who returned from China and who are experiencing symptoms (fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat) should seek medical attention immediately. They should call ahead to UHS, a provider’s office or the emergency room and let them know of their recent travel and symptoms.

Updated Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Patients who meet the criteria below should be evaluated as a Patient Under Investigation (PUI):
• Fever and signs of lower respiratory illness (cough and shortness of breath) and any person (including healthcare workers) who has had close contact with a confirmed 2019-nCoV patient in the last 14 days
• Fever and signs of lower respiratory illness (cough and shortness of breath) and any person with a history of travel from Hubei Province in the last 14 days (not just Wuhan City)
• Fever and signs of lower respiratory illness (cough and shortness of breath) requiring hospitalization and a history of travel from mainland China within 14 days of onset

For more information, visit:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/coronavirus.page

Maureen Keown, MSN, Director
University Health Services

In the beginning, he focused on the mathematical theory behind experiments that Fredric Cohen, Ph.D. and Robert Eisenberg, Ph.D., physiologists at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, had been working on— until they advised that he move from theory to “reality.”

“They said, ‘this is what the experiments say. This is what actually happens in the experiments when we change conditions,’” said Ryham of his collaborators. “’Your mathematical description must account for these effects.’”

According to Ryham, if researchers know precisely where and how a particular virus and its machinery expend energy, it may be possible to develop treatments that interrupt the delivery of genetic material by that virus and prevent infection.

Last year, he partnered with Cohen and other researchers from the National Institutes of Health to publish results of a funded study about the properties of influenza virus haemagglutinin. The study, which was published in Nature Microbiology, explores how a deeper understanding of the structural details of membrane fusion machinery can help to effectively combat influenza.

While there have been several mathematical models that estimate activation energies, Ryham helped to identify a transition pathway that previous physicists had missed in their explorations of viral fusion: a new structure called ‘lipidic junction.’ The researchers made further headway in the study by quantifying the activation energy for this new pathway of membrane fusion, which had never been done in this capacity, he said.

Ryham calculated the minimum-energy paths necessary for membrane fusion. He said an approach to calculation called the “string method” allowed him to provide a mathematical explanation for what the biologists were observing under the microscope.

“The thing that they were seeing, which was totally unexpected, was that when the virus attaches itself to the cell or fuses with the cell, it doesn’t follow the conjectured pattern,” he said. “It seems to break open and re-attach in an abrupt process. You wouldn’t suspect that nature would permit something so abrupt.”

The experiments also revealed that the activation energy for membrane fusion was significantly lower than what researchers previously predicted, which has biological significance. Another unexpected outcome was that the amount of cholesterol in the cell governed whether the event was an abrupt or smoothly transitioning process.

“It just reinforces the idea that cholesterol is a control parameter for things occurring inside the body,” he said. “In this case, it was for influenza.”

Related work on the subject deals with gaining entry into a cell—but without the use of viruses.

“The application of this study is more toward pharmacology,” he said. “The idea is that you want to load up minute spherical vesicles with a drug, launch them in the bloodstream, and then release the drug in a controlled fashion. Having an equation describing how and when the vesicle is going to burst is part of what makes these treatments possible.”

Ryham said mathematical models like the ones he develops, whether big or small, could contribute to breakthroughs in medicine in the future.

“Mathematicians are often motivated by questions in basic science and research something because it’s interesting,” he said. “But it may end up having an application down the road, and you never know what that application is going to be.”