New 'Sars-like' coronavirus identified by UK officials

http://news.yahoo.com/sars-virus-detected-middle-east-070206993.html

 

  Quote

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization said Monday it is too soon to say whether there could be an outbreak of a SARS-like killer respiratory disease after health officials in Britainannounced they detected a related virus in a severely ill patient from the Middle East.

British officials alerted WHO on Saturday of the new virus in a man transferred from Qatar for treatment in London. He had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia, where another man died of a similar illness earlier this year.

The man in the new case was sickened by a coronavirus, from a family of viruses which causes most common colds but also includes the virus that causes SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. In 2003, SARS killed some 800 people, mostly in Asia, in a short-lived epidemic.

"It's still very early days," said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman. "At the moment we have two sporadic cases and there are still a lot of holes to be filled in." Hartl said it was unclear how the virus is spread and there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

Coronaviruses are typically spread in the air but Hartl said scientists were considering the possibility that patients were infected directly by animals. "All possible avenues of infection are being explored right now," he said.

So far there is no connection between the cases except for a history of travel in Saudi Arabia. SARS was first spread to humans from civet cats in China.

Hartl said no other countries have so far reported any similar cases to WHO.

Other experts said it was unclear how dangerous the virus is. "We don't know if this is going to turn into another SARS or if it will disappear into nothing," said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota. He said it was crucial to determine the ratio of severe to mild cases.

SARS hit more than 30 countries worldwide after spreading from Hong Kong. Osterholm said it was worrying that at least one person with the disease had died. "You don't die from the common cold," he said. "This gives us reason to think it might be more like SARS," which killed about 10 percent of the people it infected.

Britain's Health Protection Agency and the World Health Organization said in statements that the 49-year-old Qatari national became ill on Sept. 3, having previously traveled to Saudi Arabia. He was transferred from Qatar to Britain on Sept. 11 and is being treated in an intensive care unit at a London hospital for problems including kidney failure. Respiratory viruses aren't usually known to cause serious kidney problems.

 

Probably nothing due to space between both patients contraction and lack of spread to others in contact with individuals but the kidney failure stuff is concerning.

yeah I think I've got this

 

*coughs*

Fuck this is man-flu

 

All these years just waiting for the diagnosis

I've been coughing like crazy ever since I returned from Manchester last week. Did it spread? What should I do? Am I going to die?

 

BREAKING NEWS: MAN HAS A COLD; TOO EARLY TO SAY IF SERIOUS

(now available worldwide)

*buys mask and potpourri, stocks up on petrol and panic buys the shit out of tesco's*

flying aids

lol

Just re-localized down in my 7x9 foot sealed crawl space. Wasn't able to squeeze my plasma 55 incher down here but I got my smart phone and some national geographic magazines. Might have to run to the store for some ailment, think I got a spider bite on my ankle.

LOL

they all laughed at me, but now theyll pay. i finally released a virus on the world that gives you the severe sinus irritation and flu like symptoms. i call it "SUPER SARS" world governments will collapse, econmies will crummble, the world will bow before me! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!...............wait, my virus can be beat with campbells chicken noodle soup!? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited September 24, 2012 by Frankie5fingers

I coughed only the other day.

 

No-one yet dead.

I've been puking and shitting my ass out since early sunday morning, am I going to die?

  On 9/24/2012 at 10:03 PM, ussr said:

I've been puking and shitting my ass out since early sunday morning, am I going to die?

sounds normal to me

  On 9/24/2012 at 10:09 PM, Friendly Foil said:

  On 9/24/2012 at 10:03 PM, ussr said:

I've been puking and shitting my ass out since early sunday morning, am I going to die?

sounds normal to me

i call that a slow tuesday

rumsfeld needs to make some more money eh.

  On 9/24/2012 at 10:47 PM, delet... said:

rumsfeld needs to make some more money eh.

If you're suggesting that Rumsfeld's ties with Saudi Arabia is a sign he and other neo-conservative players have let loose this virus down there, then that makes me more concerned about it being dangerous than had it simply been natural.

 

I mean look at this:

 

 

wtf is up with that yo

 

--

 

  Quote

This new virus was first identified and reported by Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki at the Virology Laboratory of Dr. Soliman Fakeeh Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He had taken a sample from the Saudi patient's lungs before he succumbed to his illness. After comparing it to other cold and flu viruses and the SARS virus, it became clear that he had found a new virus, according a WHO spokesman.

 

Zaki then had his sample verified by a leading coronavirus researcher, Dr. Ron Fouchier at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, according to his posting on the website for ProMed, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases, on September 15.

Researchers in the UK also isolated the virus in the patient from Qatar and sent them to the Netherlands as well. Fouchier studied the genetic makeup of both and found them to be 99.5% identical.

 

But it doesn't seem to behave like SARS did, says WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl. These two men not only suffered from severe respiratory illness, they also had kidney failure, something that wasn't seen in SARS patients. Also, none of the close contacts or health personnel caring for the patients has become infected yet, says Hartl, but they are still being watched.

"There is reason to be interested and even concerned" about this new coronavirus, says Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Edited September 25, 2012 by compson

Nope. Whilst it's interesting where it was 'discovered'.

 

Rumsfeld was chairman for a while and is a major investor in gilead which made tamiflu, a treatment for the first round of the bird flu scare. They made a mint out of scaring governments into purchasing huge (and unused) stocks of tamiflu.

  On 9/25/2012 at 2:18 AM, delet... said:

Nope. Whilst it's interesting where it was 'discovered'.

 

Rumsfeld was chairman for a while and is a major investor in gilead which made tamiflu, a treatment for the first round of the bird flu scare. They made a mint out of scaring governments into purchasing huge (and unused) stocks of tamiflu.

 

Ah I see... this is a different virus though. Will Gilead make the treatment for most things like this one? Would the stocks of tamiflu not been helpful had the bird flu scare been legit? Seems like with these kind of viruses the risk of mutation means that something could seem relatively harmless but if it mutated at least the stockpiles would help?

Edited September 25, 2012 by compson

5 isolated in Danish hospital for SARS-like symptoms

 

  Quote

Five people have been isolated in a hospital in Denmark with symptoms of a new viral respiratory illness from the same family as the deadly SARS virus, the hospital said on Wednesday.

 

"We have sent samples from the five for testing and hope to get the results this afternoon," chief physician Svend Stenvang Petersen of Odense University Hospital told AFP.

 

"The five have a fever, coughing and influenza-like symptoms," he added.

 

Petersen said those admitted were a family of four where the father had been to Saudi Arabia, and an unrelated person who had been to Qatar. Two of those with symptoms were under the age of five.

 

"We have put them in isolation because we don't know how the virus spreads. So just as with bird and swine flu we have admitted them and isolated them so that we prevent the spread to others," Petersen said.

 

"We do not have any medicine that works against this virus."

 

The five contacted their doctors following a Danish health authority advisory on Monday recommending that those who had travelled to Qatar and Saudi Arabia seek medical help if they experienced a fever, coughing, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.

 

The new virus, which is in the same family as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus, was recently identified by the British Health Protection Agency in a Qatari man transferred to London from Qatar.

 

A Saudi national died earlier this year from a virtually identical virus, the World Health Organisation has said.

 

The WHO confirmed in a global alert on Monday that the new virus was in the coronavirus family which causes the common cold but can also include more severe illnesses including SARS.

 

SARS swept out of China in 2003, killing more than 800 people worldwide.

 

http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/5-isolated-in-danish-hospital-for-sars-like-symptoms

 

  Quote

A family of four and another person were under isolation in a Danish hospital Wednesday after exhibiting symptoms of a respiratory illness related to SARS, the Agence France Presse news agency reported.

 

The patients got in touch with their doctors after a health advisory was issued Monday for sick people who had recently traveled to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, according to the report.

 

Odense University Hospital's chief physician Svend Stenvang Petersen told AFP the family's father had gone to Saudi Arabia and the unrelated person was in Qatar. All five patients were experiencing flu-like symptoms, fever and coughing, Petersen said.

 

"We have put them in isolation because we don't know how the virus spreads. So just as with bird and swine flu we have admitted them and isolated them so that we prevent the spread to others," Petersen told AFP.

 

http://www.cbsnews.c...e-5-in-denmark/

Edited September 28, 2012 by compson

The flu typically has an R0 of 1... it seems concerning that this entire family got sick, the higher the R0 especially with how this virus shuts down the kidney's (worse than 2003 SARS) it is concerning. I'm also surprised to not see much on this story in the press.

Danish family is ok, at least I just found this article that says they tested positive for Influenza B... so that's good.

 

http://www.skynews.c....aspx?id=799701

 

These viruses form from animals... how is this attacking Muslims? It's weird that you would automatically jump to that as a reason why they/I would report on this. Most important way to prevent another 1918 type flu is communication. Some people may see it as a way to induce fear/paranoia, exploit people with vaccines, etc... but I think its more about being super safe with any kind of new virus mutation that's fatal.

Edited September 28, 2012 by compson

  On 9/28/2012 at 2:51 AM, usagi said:

ain't no bein' safe from them, I tellya. if it ain't the shareeya it's some nasty virus grown in their unwashed turbans. and we got one in the fuckin' White House, can ya believe that? this is all part of the secret Obamacare agenda, drivin' us to commyanism.

 

I agree