Virus similar to SARS spread with contact
Source: Agencies |
February 14, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
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A third patient in Britain has contracted a new SARS-like virus, becoming the second confirmed UK case in a week and showing the deadly infection is being spread from person to person, health officials said yesterday.
The latest case, who is a family member of another patient, brings the worldwide number of confirmed infections with the new virus - known as the novel coronavirus or NCoV - to 11.
Of that total, five have died. Most of those infected have recently traveled in the Middle East and three have been diagnosed in Britain.
NCoV was identified when the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an international alert in September 2012 saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a Qatari man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.
The virus belongs to the same family of coronavirus that caused SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - a disease that emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
Symptoms common to both viruses include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.
The UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) said yesterday the latest patient, who is a UK resident and does not have any recent travel history, is receiving intensive care treatment at a hospital in Birmingham.
"Confirmed novel coronavirus infection in a person without travel history to the Middle East suggests that person-to-person transmission has occurred, and that it occurred in the UK," said John Watson, the HPA's head of respiratory diseases.
He said the new case was a family member who was in close personal contact with another UK case confirmed on Monday and who may have been at greater risk because of underlying health conditions.
Coronaviruses are typically spread like other respiratory infections such as flu, traveling in airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Yet since the new virus was first identified in September, health experts say evidence of person-to-person transmission of NCoV has been limited.
Watson said the fact it had probably taken place in the latest two cases in Britain gave no reason for increased alarm. "Although this case provides strong evidence for person-to-person transmission, the risk of infection in most circumstances is still considered to be very low," he said. "If novel coronavirus were more infectious, we would have expected to have seen a larger number of cases than we have seen since the first case was reported three months ago."
The WHO said on Monday that the confirmation of a new British case did not alter its risk assessment but "does indicate that the virus is persistent."
Among the 11 laboratory confirmed cases to date, five are in Saudi Arabia, with three deaths; two are in Jordan, where both died; three are in Britain, where all three are being treated; and one was in Germany in a patient from Qatar since been discharged from medical care.
The latest case, who is a family member of another patient, brings the worldwide number of confirmed infections with the new virus - known as the novel coronavirus or NCoV - to 11.
Of that total, five have died. Most of those infected have recently traveled in the Middle East and three have been diagnosed in Britain.
NCoV was identified when the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an international alert in September 2012 saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a Qatari man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.
The virus belongs to the same family of coronavirus that caused SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - a disease that emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
Symptoms common to both viruses include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.
The UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) said yesterday the latest patient, who is a UK resident and does not have any recent travel history, is receiving intensive care treatment at a hospital in Birmingham.
"Confirmed novel coronavirus infection in a person without travel history to the Middle East suggests that person-to-person transmission has occurred, and that it occurred in the UK," said John Watson, the HPA's head of respiratory diseases.
He said the new case was a family member who was in close personal contact with another UK case confirmed on Monday and who may have been at greater risk because of underlying health conditions.
Coronaviruses are typically spread like other respiratory infections such as flu, traveling in airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Yet since the new virus was first identified in September, health experts say evidence of person-to-person transmission of NCoV has been limited.
Watson said the fact it had probably taken place in the latest two cases in Britain gave no reason for increased alarm. "Although this case provides strong evidence for person-to-person transmission, the risk of infection in most circumstances is still considered to be very low," he said. "If novel coronavirus were more infectious, we would have expected to have seen a larger number of cases than we have seen since the first case was reported three months ago."
The WHO said on Monday that the confirmation of a new British case did not alter its risk assessment but "does indicate that the virus is persistent."
Among the 11 laboratory confirmed cases to date, five are in Saudi Arabia, with three deaths; two are in Jordan, where both died; three are in Britain, where all three are being treated; and one was in Germany in a patient from Qatar since been discharged from medical care.
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