11 Now Dead From SARS-Like Virus

[HuffingtonPost]

GENEVA, March 27 (Reuters) - A 73-year-old man from the  United Arab Emirates has become the eleventh person to die from  a virus that attacks the respiratory system and was only  identified six months ago, the World Health Organization said.                

The latest casualty of the so-called "novel Coronavirus"  (nCoV) was flown to hospital in Munich last week and died on  Tuesday, the United Nations' agency said.                

Seventeen cases have been announced since the WHO issued an  alert in September last year, most of them with links to the  Middle East.                

Another man who had a history of travel to Saudi Arabia and  Pakistan had also died in a British hospital, it added.                

Scientists say the new virus is from the same viral family  that causes the common cold and also triggered the outbreak of  Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world  from Asia in late 2003, leaving 775 dead.                

Symptoms of nCoV - which doctors say spreads rapidly around  the body within 48 hours of infection - include severe breathing  difficulties, fever, coughing and pneumonia. It can also attack  the kidneys, according to health experts.                

In a statement issued late on Tuesday, the WHO said it was  encouraging governments to watch for all severe respiratory  infections and especially for any unusual patterns they might  take. It should be advised of any nCoV case, it added.                

For the moment, the U.N. agency said, it was not advising  countries to set up any special screening for nCoV at entry  points and was not recommending any of the travel or trade  restrictions introduced during the SARS epidemic.                

The first reported case of infection by the previously  little-known virus was a Qatari man who had also traveled to  Saudi Arabia. Earlier in 2012, a 60-year-old Saudi national was  believed to have died from it.     (Reported by Robert Evans)

Via: HuffingtonPost