Nidovirales | GlobalPost

First proof of patient-to-nurse infection of coronavirus

Agence France-PresseMay 15, 2013 18:00

Two Saudi health workers have contracted the deadly coronavirus from patients, marking the first evidence of transmission in a hospital setting, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. "This is the first time health care workers have been diagnosed with nCoV (novel coronavirus) infection after exposure to patients," the WHO said in a statement. The two health care workers were among six new cases announced by the Saudi health ministry on Tuesday.

First proof of patient-to-nurse infection of SARS-like virus

Agence France-PresseMay 15, 2013 16:01

Two more die in Saudi Arabia from SARS-like virus: WHO

Thomson ReutersMay 15, 2013 14:33

GENEVA (Reuters) - Two more people in Saudi Arabia have died from a new strain of coronavirus that has emerged in the Middle East, bringing the toll in the kingdom's latest outbreak to seven, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. Six other people are infected, one of them critically ill, in an outbreak centered on a health care facility in Al Ahsa governorate in Eastern Province, WHO spokesman Glenn Thomas said in Geneva.

Canada's national lab has new sample of coronavirus, planning studies

The Canadian PressMay 14, 2013 21:40

TORONTO - Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg has a sample of the new coronavirus that is causing infections in a number of countries, most notably Saudi Arabia. Scientific director Dr. Frank Plummer says the lab obtained the virus from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The Dutch lab was the one that first identified the new virus last June in a sample from a Saudi man who had died of a mysterious illness. Plummer says the coronavirus arrived at the Winnipeg facility on May 4.

Two more people die of novel coronavirus in Saudi Arabia

Thomson ReutersMay 14, 2013 20:16

RIYADH (Reuters) - Two more people have died from novel coronavirus, a new strain of the virus similar to the one that caused SARS, in an outbreak in al-Ahsa region of Saudi Arabia, the deputy health minister for public health said on Sunday. Ziad Memish said that in the latest cluster of infections, 15 cases had been confirmed, and nine of those patients had died. (Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Saudi detects four new SARS-like cases

Agence France-PresseMay 14, 2013 15:00

Four more cases of the deadly coronavirus have been detected in Saudi Arabia, the health ministry said, raising the number of people infected from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom to 28, including 15 fatalities. The four cases were registered in Eastern Province, which has been gripped by panic after it was shown to be home to most of the infection cases in the kingdom, the ministry said on its website late Monday. "One of the people has recovered and discharged, while the other three are still being treated," the ministry said.

WHO revises up death toll from SARS-like virus

Agence France-PresseMay 14, 2013 08:16

The World Health Organization on Tuesday revised up the death toll from the SARS-like coronavirus from 18 to 20 worldwide, but said the two additional fatalities in Saudi Arabia were old cases. "These are two deaths which are retrospective. They're from an earlier outbreak," WHO spokesman Glenn Thomas told reporters in Geneva, without providing further details. Earlier Tuesday, the Saudi health ministry said four more cases of the SARS-like virus had been detected in the kingdom, bringing the number of cases there to 28 out of a global 38 cases.

Panic grips Saudis as toll rises from SARS-like virus

Agence France-PresseMay 13, 2013 23:02

Panic has gripped Saudis in the country's east, where most cases of the deadly coronavirus have been detected, witnesses said, as the death toll from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom hits 15. Scores of people have reported to the emergency services at hospitals in the city of Al-Ahsa in Eastern Province after showing even the slightest signs of a fever. "I felt the symptoms of a cold, accompanied by a fever," a young man told AFP by telephone on Monday from one hospital where he was admitted and placed in quarantine.

WHO calls on France to stay calm amid SARS-like virus scare

Agence France-PresseMay 13, 2013 17:28

The World Health Organisation on Monday called on people in France, where two confirmed cases of the new SARS-like virus were recorded at the weekend, to stay calm and not overburden hospitals for fear of the deadly virus to allow for proper treatment of those actually infected. "We need the health system to be able to take care of those (infected) patients and people who legitimately have this disease... We do not want to overburden the health system," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told AFP.

Coronavirus epidemic awaits, not certain to be severe - discoverer

Thomson ReutersMay 13, 2013 14:17

By Alexander Dziadosz CAIRO (Reuters) - The doctor who discovered a new SARS-like virus says it will probably trigger an epidemic at some point, but not necessarily in its current virulent form. The new strain of coronavirus (nCoV) that Ali Mohamed Zaki found last year, related to one that caused the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, has killed at least 18 people in the Middle East and Europe.