New SARS-like virus found, man critically ill in UK
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LONDON (Reuters) - A Qatari man struck down with a previously unknown virus related to the deadly SARS infection and the common cold is critically ill in hospital in Britain, the World Health Organisation said on Monday.
The U.N. health body put out a global alert on Sunday saying a new virus had infected the 49-year-old man who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia - where another man with an almost identical virus had already died.
Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) and respiratory disease experts said there was no immediate cause for concern, although authorities were watching out for any signs of the virus spreading.
"This new virus ... is different from any that have previously been identified in humans," the HPA said.
Any suggestions of a link between the virus and Saudi Arabia will cause particular concern in the build-up to next month's Muslim haj pilgrimage, when millions of people arrive in the kingdom from across the world, then return to their homes.
The virus, known as a coronavirus, comes from the same family as SARS which emerged in 2002 and killed 800 people.
"This is now an international issue," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said. "The (Qatari) patient is still alive but, as we understand, in critical condition," he said.
The HPA said it was recommending the Qatari patient be treated in isolation by doctors and nurses wearing gowns, gloves respirators, goggles and other protective equipment.
It did not recommend any specific actions for travellers or other members of the public.
INTENSIVE CARE
The Qatari man first showed symptoms of an acute respiratory infection while he was in Qatar, the WHO said.
He spent some time in intensive case in Qatar and was later flown to the UK where he was currently in a London hospital's intensive care unit, being treated for acute respiratory infection and kidney failure. Officials declined to name the hospital.
Andrew Easton, a virologist at Britain's University of Warwick, said that with only two cases so far, it was difficult for experts to estimate the potential threat.
"The important thing is to be aware of the virus and to be on the lookout for any evidence that it is more than a rare chance event," he said.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that includes causes of the common cold but can also include more severe illness such as the virus responsible for SARS.
SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, appeared in China in 2002 and infected more than 8,000 people worldwide, killing around 800 of them before being brought under control.
John Oxford, a professor of Virology at Queen Mary, University of London, said he was not too concerned as the new virus was "more likely to join numerous other members of the coronavirus family and behave like a nasty infection rather than join the exception group like SARS".
"SARS was very quick off the mark infecting hospital staff," he said in an emailed comment. "And this new virus does not to me appear to be in the same 'big bang' group."
The WHO said it was in touch with health authorities in Britain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
"We're asking for information from whoever might have seen such cases, but as of the moment we haven't had any more notifications of cases," said Hartl.
The HPA said it had conducted lab testing on Qatari case and found a 99.5 percent match to a virus that killed a 60-year-old Saudi national earlier this year. The Saudi man's virus was not identified as a new kind of infection at the time of his death.
There was no evidence of ongoing transmission, said the head of the HPA's respiratory diseases department, John Watson.
"In the light of the severity of the illness that has been identified in the two confirmed cases, immediate steps have been taken to ensure that people who have been in contact with the UK case have not been infected, and there is no evidence to suggest they have," he said. (Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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I am not feeling well today
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must be somone pangsai already boh sway chui
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LONDON (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a global alert about the emergence of a new virus that was previously unknown in humans and can cause a potentially fatal acute respiratory infection.
Here is an at-a-glance guide to the virus:
* The virus belongs to a family called coronaviruses and has so far been confirmed in only two cases globally. Both occurred between July and September 2012.
* The first case was in a 60-year-old man in Saudi Arabia and proved fatal. The second is in a 49-year-old Qatari man who recently visited Saudi Arabia. He had the infection diagnosed after travelling to London in early September.
* The WHO has not yet given the virus a name, but scientists at Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) refer to it as "London1_novel CoV 2012".
* Human coronaviruses were first identified in the mid-1960s and are named for the crown-like projections on the surface of the virus.
* The family includes viruses that cause the common cold and SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about 10 percent of approximately 8,000 people infected worldwide.
* Symptoms in the two confirmed cases include fever, cough and breathing difficulties. It is not yet clear whether these are typical or whether the virus could be circulating more widely but causing milder illness.
* Coronaviruses are typically spread like other respiratory infections, such as flu, travelling in airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
* At this stage it is not clear where the virus came from. New infections can emerge from mutations to existing viruses, or be caught from infections circulating in the animal population. Human diseases that come from animal are called zoonoses.
SOURCES: World Health Organisation, Health Portection Agency (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by David Goodman)
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Health risk from new virus remains low: MOH
SINGAPORE: Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) said the health risk from the new coronavirus reported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 23 September is low.
It said as of 25 September 2012, the WHO has not received any reports of additional probable or confirmed cases linked to the virus.
There is also no evidence of the disease spreading to the family members and healthcare workers in contact with the two confirmed cases that the WHO had reported earlier.
The health ministry also said there are currently no cases of the virus reported in Singapore.
But it urged travellers returning from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to monitor their health.
It said they should look out for signs and symptoms of respiratory illness such as fever, cough and breathlessness.
They are to seek early medical attention if they are ill with such symptoms.
Individuals should also inform their doctors of their travel history, should they develop the symptoms after returning to Singapore.
On 23 September, the WHO issued a global alert on two cases of a severe respiratory illness due to infection with a new coronavirus.
The first case was a 60-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who died in July 2012.
The second case is a 49-year-old Qatari national who had visited Saudi Arabia shortly before his illness. He is currently receiving treatment in the United Kingdom.
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New 'Sars-like' not easily transmitted says WHO
A new respiratory illness - from the same family as the Sars virus - appears not to spread easily, experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) say.
A Qatari man, 49, with the virus is being treated in the UK. The first person known to have had it, in Saudi Arabia, died.
The WHO said on Friday that it appeared the new virus "cannot be easily transmitted from person to person."
The Sars virus, which emerged in China in 2002, killed hundreds of people.
Both Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and the new, un-named, virus - as well as the common cold virus - belong to the coronavirus family
But this new virus is different from any coronaviruses previously identified in humans.
Both of the patients known to have had the virus experienced kidney failure.
Zoonotic
The WHO said it would continue to monitor the situation but was not recommending any travel restrictions for Saudi Arabia or Qatar.
However it said it was working closely with Saudi authorities in advance of the forthcoming Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
The WHO also announced diagnostic tests were being developed by scientists around the world as quickly as possible.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in the European Union, said initial findings suggested the virus may have originated in animals - diseases known as zoonotic.
Writing in the journal Eurosurveillance, they said: "It is quite probably of zoonotic origin and different in behaviour to Sars."