Saudi Arabia Sars-like virus 'kills five'

[Albergineman]

:eek:

BBC News - Saudi Arabia Sars-like virus 'kills five' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22378541)

[RETARD_RETARD_RETARD]

We picked up that intell 'unofficially' from the airport staff. No formal company word or airport procedures to deal with it though.

Trusting the Arabs, i'm sure they'd dump the first guy who sneezes around the airport into the local furnace, or cook em alive in the town square.

Word on the street says it apparently came in through a few pilgrims on the Umraah.

Clasping the root of the probiscus stops one from sneezing(!).:rolleyes:

[Dubaian]

But the BBC report says those who died were from the Eastern Province - nowhere near the Haj/Umrah areas. And includes a WHO statement the World Health Organization said the cases were not from the same family and preliminary inquiries showed "no indication of recent travel or animal contact" in any of the confirmed cases.So how did the poor souls become infected?

I suppose someone on a pilgrimage trip could have also gone to the East of KSA but does this particular strain of virus transmit person-to-person ?

[ferris]

It appears the virus is morphing/has morphed into person-to-person transmittable. Now 30 cases, with 18 deaths (mostly elderly). WHO monitoring closely as it has the potential to become pandemic. Saudi authorities locking down certain wards of various hospitals with masked guards- the response after they confirmed to WHO that it is novel caronavirus.

This is certainly something to keep an eye on.

[cjslondon]

Authorities in Saudi Arabia say they have found two more people who were infected with the new coronavirus in a large cluster of cases in the eastern portion of the country.

The two new cases bring the total to date of that cluster to 15 infections, seven of which were fatal.
Saudi Arabia's al Hofuf cluster of cases is the largest to date with the new coronavirus.Saudi Arabia's al Hofuf cluster of cases is the largest to date with the new coronavirus. (National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases/Canadian Press)
One of the newly detected cases became ill on April 6, meaning the new virus has been spreading in al Hofuf for more than one month.

The country's deputy health minister reported the cases today via the internet-based disease surveillance system, ProMED.

Dr. Ziad Memish says the people are not newly infected, but cases that were detected by going back through records and tracing people who had been in contact with known cases.

Both are still alive and one man has recovered and been released from hospital.

The other started to show symptoms on April 29; he is reportedly in stable condition in hospital.

Memish did not reveal how the two new cases were linked to previously reported infections. But he appeared to suggest that there is no ongoing spread of the virus at this time.

"Actions implemented and fully applied by 1 May 2013 have been effective to date in preventing new cases related to this cluster from emerging," he wrote in his ProMED posting.

The al Hofuf cluster is the largest to date with the new coronavirus and it is linked to one or more health-care facilities.

That raises alarm bells, especially given that this virus is from the same family as the SARS coronavirus. The SARS virus spread poorly in the community, but took off in health-care settings among unprotected health-care workers and hospital patients.

Over the past 13 months, 33 new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Britain and France. All cases are linked to the countries on the Arabian Peninsula. Eighteen of the cases have been fatal.

Saudi Arabia has reported the most cases — 25, with 14 fatalities.

The kingdom's officials have been reluctant to share information about the outbreak but recently invited some outside experts to travel to Saudi Arabia to consult on the situation.

Toronto SARS expert Dr. Allison McGeer is among them. The head of infection control at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, she is currently in Saudi Arabia helping with the investigation.