GPs are on alert for patients with fever or respiratory symptoms returning from China, as governments worldwide await a possible declaration of international health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak.

The WHO is poised to meet to consider the threat from the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019 nCov) that emerged in a live animal market in Wuhan, China, in December, and has now caused 440 laboratory-confirmed cases, including nine deaths.

Concern about the potential for widespread illness has grown following China’s confirmation that human-to-human spread has occurred.

The head of biosecurity research at the Kirby Institute, Professor Raina MacIntyre, says the extent to which such transmission is occurring is currently unknown, but is likely limited, as most cases have not been spread that way.