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| Saudi women protect themselves from the novel coronavirus | . |
SARS along with HIV AIDS seems to be the main focus of epidemic medical attention these days. Even as suburban high school students, we encounter talks of these viruses everywhere from the television to school classes.
This is why I have chosen to present an article published by ABC News on February 14, 2013 about a new SARS-like virus showing up in the United Kingdom.
I have combined this summary of the ABC article with that of another, more recent article published by the World Health Organization on February 21, 2013.
This is called 'novel coronavirus', or NCoV. In an informal setting, it is sometimes called Saudi SARS.
This respiratory disease was first found in a Qatari patient in the Middle East who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia in September of 2012.
Much like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which had killed a tenth of the 8,000 people it had infected worldwide, symptoms common to both viruses include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.
There is a family cluster of three in England who all test positive for NCoV. One of which, who already had underlying health issues, has died.
“Confirmed novel coronavirus infection in a person without travel history to the Middle East suggests that person-to-person transmission had occurred in the UK,” said John Watson, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) head in Britain in relevance to the most recent case for England.
The WHO said that although this case in England seems to have been of person-to-person transmission, it still believed “the risk of sustained person-to-person transmission appears to be very low.”
On February 21, 2013, The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia had informed WHO of another confirmed case of novel coronavirus. The patient was hospitalized on January 29 3013 and had died on February 10. The worldwide number of confirmed infections is currently at 13. Six of which have died. Most of these patients have recently been to the Middle East.
WHO does not believe that any trade restrictions with the Middle East is necessary nor do they believe that any special screening at points of entry with regard to this event needs to be applied. WHO continues to closely monitor the situation.
This appearance of NCoV is very startling. It is frightening to consider what this relatively small outbreak has potential to become. The virus is very deadly and has the ability to pass from person to person. WHO encourages anyone with strange, unexplained pneumonia or severe respiratory illness not responding to treatment to be tested.
For the ABC article: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-14/new-sars-like-virus-shows-person-to-person-transmission/4519386
For the WHO publication: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2013_02_21/en/index.html
Picture credit: http://en.mercopress.com/2012/09/26/following-two-cases-world-health-organization-instructs-on-novel-coronavirus
David, this article was very frightening especially with your title “new SARS-like virus threatening to spread.” The title was reflective of the articles that you wrote about and captures the fear of the virus spreading further as you reveal in your post. The novel coronavirus found in a Qatari patient in the Middle East was just in Saudi Arabia when they came down with the virus. The pattern seems to be that most of the patients who have come down with Saudi SARS had recently traveled to the Middle East and came back with the virus. The fact that the virus has killed 10 percent of its victims so far is very scary. Eight thousand people have been infected world-wide and they have come to discover that the virus can be transmitted from person to person, a fact that only contributes to the terror of it spreading any more. The virus seems very deadly from the articles that were written about and should definitely be watched closely by the WHO as they have claimed they intend to do.
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