A twelfth person has contracted the potentially life-threatening, SARS-like virus which has only been recently discovered in humans, but health officials continue to assure everyone the chance of widespread infection remains extremely low, based on various media reports published this weekend.
The new case, which was confirmed on Friday, is incorporated in the UK, making it the fourth British person to contract the novel coronavirus (NCoV) and the third to come down using the disease in one week´s time, based on Reuters reporter Kate Kelland. Of the twelve confirmed cases worldwide, five have died as a result of the virus, she added.
Guardian Health Editor Sarah Boseley reports the most recent victim may be the third member of the same British family to contract NCoV. The first member of that family had traveled to Pakistan and the Middle East, and both they and a relative having a pre-existing medical problem that may have heightened their chance of infection happen to be hospitalized.
“The 3rd member of the family to have contracted the novel coronavirus is said“¦ to be recovering from a mild respiratory illness and is well,” Boseley added. “He or she has been advised to not meet with individuals that are not area of the family, but only like a precaution. Other relatives and contacts from the latest person to be diagnosed continue to be found and tested.”
The virus was first identified in September 2012, when the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global alert warning that a Qatari man in England had contracted the herpes virus that had nothing you’ve seen prior been noticed in humans, Kelland said. NCoV is one of the same family because the coronavirus SARS, which surfaced in China greater than a decade ago and infected 8,000 people worldwide, killing approximately one-tenth of them.
According to BBC News Health and Science Reporter James Gallagher, five of the 15 confirmed cases and three from the reported fatalities have occurred in Saudi Arabia. Two cases, both resulting in death, happen to be reported in Jordan, and one non-fatal case has been reported in Germany. Both that case and also the UK ones involve individuals who had recently flown to Qatar.
“Although this case appears to be because of person-to-person transmission, the risk of infection in contacts in most circumstances continues to be considered to be low,” John Watson, head of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) respiratory diseases department, told reporters on Friday. “If novel coronavirus were more infectious, we’d have expected to have seen a larger number of instances than we have seen because the first case was reported 3 months ago.
“However, this new development does justify the measures which were immediately put in place to prevent any further spread of infection and to identify and follow-up contacts of known cases,” he added. “We wish to emphasize that the risk associated with novel coronavirus towards the general UK population remains really low. The HPA will continue to work closely with national and international health authorities and can share any further advice with health care professionals and also the public if and when more information becomes available.”
