SALON

Monday, Sep 24, 2012 9:45 AM UTC

New SARS-like virus detected in Middle East

By

Topics: From the Wires,

LONDON (AP) — British health authorities have alerted the U.N. of a new respiratory virus that resembles SARS in a severely ill patient who recently traveled to Saudi Arabia — where another man died of a similar illness earlier this year.

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.

Britain’s 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 don’t 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 it’s 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.

“You don’t die from the common cold,” he said. “This gives us reason to think it might be more like SARS.” The SARS virus was particularly deadly and killed about 10 percent of the people it infected.

The World Health Organization says it is trying to determine the public health implications of the two cases but isn’t currently recommending travel restrictions.

Officials are also concerned the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage next month could provide more opportunities for the virus to spread. The Hajj has previously sparked outbreaks of diseases including flu, meningitis and polio.

___

Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

More Maria Cheng.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations