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Viral infection kills Saudis

May 2, 2013

Five Saudis have died from a new viral illness similar to SARS that gripped Asia 10 years ago. Since 2012 hCoV has claimed 16 lives, mostly in Saudi Arabia as well as in Jordan, Germany and Britain.

https://p.dw.com/p/18QcS
This undated image released by the British Health Protection Agency shows an electron microscope image of a coronavirus, part of a family of viruses that cause ailments including the common cold and SARS, which was first identified last year in the Middle East. British officials say a mysterious virus related to SARS may have spread between humans, as they confirmed the 11th case worldwide of the new coronavirus in a patient who they say probably caught it from a family member. Officials at the World Health Organization said the new virus has probably already spread between humans in some instances. Photo: AP /Health Protection Agency
Image: picture-alliance/AP

Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry anounced that, in addition to the five deaths in recent days, two more patients with novel human coronavirus or hCoV were being treated in an intensive care unit in the oil-rich eastern region of Ahsaa.

Precautionary measures were also being taken for "persons who have been in contact with the infected people," according to a ministry statement quoted by Saudi media on Thursday.

The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the death in Germany occurred in March and involved a 73-year-old Saudi man who had traveled in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia before being transferred to Munich from Abu Dhabi.

The new virus was unknown in humans until it emerged in the Middle East last year. It causes respiratory problems and can cause rapid kidney failure.

A WHO spokesman quoted by the news agency AFP on Thursday said a travel warning for Saudi Arabia was "unlikely" because there had been "no change in the risk assessment."

In 2003 SARS killed more than 800 people when it swept China.

ipj/dr (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

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