Coronavirus sparks fears of wider human transmission

The World Health Organisation voiced deep concern yesterday over the Sars-like virus that has killed 22 people in less than a year, saying it might potentially spread more widely between humans.

"We have a high level of concern over the potential ... for this virus to have sustainable person-to-person spread," WHO deputy chief Keiji Fukuda told diplomats gathered in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, the UN agency's decision-making body.

There has already been evidence of limited transmission between humans, and last week the WHO said two Saudi health workers had contracted the deadly coronavirus from patients - the first evidence of transmission in a hospital setting.

But Fukuda said the WHO was looking into "whether this has the potential to have a more extensive spread". Given the high fatality rate relative to the number of cases, experts have highlighted the power of the virus and the frightening prospect of it mutating into a form that leaps easily from human to human.