Killer virus can transmit between people: WHO
Source: Agencies |
May 13, 2013, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE World Health Organization said yesterday it appeared likely that the novel coronavirus, which has killed 18 people in the Middle East and Europe, could be passed between people in close contact.
The coronavirus is from the same viral family that triggered the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world after starting in Asia in late 2003 and killed 775 people.
WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda, speaking after a visit to Saudi Arabia, the site of the largest cluster of infections, told reporters in Riyadh there was no evidence so far that the virus was able to sustain "generalized transmission in communities."
But he added: "Of most concern ... is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple countries ... increasingly support the hypothesis that when there is close contact, this novel coronavirus can transmit from person to person."
A public health expert said "close contact" in this context meant being in the same small, enclosed space with an infected person for a prolonged period of time.
In France, a second diagnosis of the new SARS-like coronavirus has been confirmed, the health ministry said yesterday, in what appeared to be a case of human-to-human transmission.
The new infection was found in a 50-year-old man who had shared a hospital room with France's only other known sufferer, the ministry said in a statement.
Health experts are concerned about clusters of the new coronavirus strain, nCoV, which was first spotted in the Gulf and has spread to France, Britain and Germany.
There has so far been little evidence of direct and sustained human-to-human transmission of nCoV - in contrast to the pattern seen in the related SARS virus.
The first nCoV case in France, confirmed last Wednesday, is a 65-year-old man who fell ill after returning from Dubai late last month.
Both French patients are in hospital in Lille.
The coronavirus is from the same viral family that triggered the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world after starting in Asia in late 2003 and killed 775 people.
WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda, speaking after a visit to Saudi Arabia, the site of the largest cluster of infections, told reporters in Riyadh there was no evidence so far that the virus was able to sustain "generalized transmission in communities."
But he added: "Of most concern ... is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple countries ... increasingly support the hypothesis that when there is close contact, this novel coronavirus can transmit from person to person."
A public health expert said "close contact" in this context meant being in the same small, enclosed space with an infected person for a prolonged period of time.
In France, a second diagnosis of the new SARS-like coronavirus has been confirmed, the health ministry said yesterday, in what appeared to be a case of human-to-human transmission.
The new infection was found in a 50-year-old man who had shared a hospital room with France's only other known sufferer, the ministry said in a statement.
Health experts are concerned about clusters of the new coronavirus strain, nCoV, which was first spotted in the Gulf and has spread to France, Britain and Germany.
There has so far been little evidence of direct and sustained human-to-human transmission of nCoV - in contrast to the pattern seen in the related SARS virus.
The first nCoV case in France, confirmed last Wednesday, is a 65-year-old man who fell ill after returning from Dubai late last month.
Both French patients are in hospital in Lille.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
