Relative of Sars virus had more victims
WHO disease outbreak update says six people were affected by the new coronavirus
A new virus from the same family as Sars, which was discovered and sparked a global alert in September, has killed two people in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The total number of cases has risen to six, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
The UN health agency issued a global alert in late September saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a 49-year-old Qatari who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where another man with the same virus had died.
Yesterday, the agency said in a disease outbreak update that it had registered four more cases and that one of the new patients had died.
"The additional cases have been identified as part of the enhanced surveillance in Saudi Arabia (3 cases, including 1 death) and Qatar (1 case)," the WHO said.
Germany's Robert Koch Institute said the patient who fell ill in Qatar in October was brought to Germany for treatment in a speciality clinic and recovered after a month and was released this week.
Britain's Health Protection Agency confirmed, based on samples that were sent from Qatar, that he was sickened by a new coronavirus, the Koch Institute said.