GENEVA - A Qatari man suffering from a new respiratory virus from the same family as the deadly Sars remains in critical condition, the World Health Organisation said yesterday. The 49-year-old was admitted to an intensive care unit in Doha on September 7 suffering from acute respiratory infection and kidney failure before being transferred to Britain. The WHO confirmed the illness was in the coronavirus family but was not severe acute respiratory syndrome, which swept out of China in 2003, killing more than 800 people worldwide. AFP
OTTAWA - A Canadian man is in hospital in southwestern Ontario with a new variant of the swine flu virus that caused a 2009 pandemic. The adult male patient became ill "after close contact with pigs", Ontario's medical chief, Arlene King, said. He is being treated for the influenza virus, which rarely spreads from animals to humans or from humans to humans, and is being closely monitored at an undisclosed hospital, she said. No details were provided on the man's condition and the risk of an outbreak was downplayed. AFP