(Geneva) -- The World Health Organization is declaring the Wuhan coronavirus a global health emergency.
The WHO had declined to take that step before Thursday, saying it was a global concern but mostly limited to China.
More than 82-hundred people have been infected with the respiratory illness that has killed 171 people. There are six confirmed cases of it in the U.S.
The virus started December 31st and has grown quickly, already infecting more people than during the 2003 SARS epidemic.