New SARS-like virus detected in Middle East

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New SARS-like virus detected in Middle East

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British health authorities have alerted the U.N. of a new respiratory virus that resembles SARS.

24 September,2012 03:00 pm

The man in the new case was sickened by a coronavirus, which causes most common colds but also causes SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. In 2003, SARS killed hundreds of people, mostly in Asia, in a short-lived outbreak.Britains Health Protection Agency and the World Health Organization said in statements that the 49-year-old Qatari national became ill on Sept. 3, having previously traveled to Saudi Arabia. He was transferred from Qatar to Britain on Sept. 11 and is being treated in an intensive care unit at a London hospital for problems including kidney failure.The Health Protection Agency said it was unaware of any ties the patient had to Britain but that he likely was in a private clinic in the Middle East before being transferred to a London hospital. None of the health workers involved in his care has so far fallen ill with any flu-like illnesses, the agency said.The U.N. health agency says virus samples from the patient are almost identical to those of a 60-year-old Saudi national who died earlier this year. Experts said it was unclear how dangerous the virus is. We dont know if this is going to turn into another SARS or if it will disappear into nothing, said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota. He said it was crucial to determine the ratio of severe to mild cases.Osterholm also said more information was needed on how the virus is spread — whether its spread as easily as a common cold or, as in the case of SARS, mostly through close contact and via specific medical procedures like a lung intubation. He said it was worrying that there had been at least one death from the new virus.