Eleventh global case of SARS-linked virus confirmed in U.K.

Feb 14 2013

"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," the Associated Press reports (2/13). "The new virus, which the WHO refers to as novel coronavirus or NCoV, shares some of the symptoms of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -- a coronavirus which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide," Reuters writes, adding, "The [WHO] said the latest infection was 'a sporadic case' and did not alter the WHO's risk assessment" (Kelland, 2/11). "The new virus was first identified last year in the Middle East and the 10 people who have previously been infected had all traveled there," the AP writes. However, "[a]ccording to Britain's Health Protection Agency, the latest patient is a U.K. resident with no recent travel to the Middle East but who had close personal contact with an earlier case," the news agency notes (2/13).