A new respiratory illness – from the same family as the Sars virus – appears not to spread easily, experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) say.<\/p>\n
The WHO said on Friday that it appeared the new virus “cannot be easily transmitted from person to person.”<\/p>\n
BBC reports that a man 49, from Qatari with the virus is being treated in the UK. The first person known to have had it, in Saudi Arabia, died.<\/p>\n
The Sars virus, which emerged in China in 2002, killed hundreds of people.<\/p>\n
Both Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and the new, un-named, virus – as well as the common cold virus – belong to the coronavirus family<\/p>\n
But this new virus is different from any coronaviruses previously identified in humans.<\/p>\n
Both of the patients known to have had the virus experienced kidney failure.<\/p>\n
The WHO said it would continue to monitor the situation but was not recommending any travel restrictions for Saudi Arabia or Qatar.<\/p>\n
However it said it was working closely with Saudi authorities in advance of the forthcoming Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.<\/p>\n
The WHO also announced diagnostic tests were being developed by scientists around the world as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors disease in the European Union, said initial findings suggested the virus may have originated in animals – diseases known as zoonotic.<\/p>\n
Writing in the journal Eurosurveillance, they said: “It is quite probably of zoonotic origin and different in behaviour to Sars.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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