world health organization announced the discovery of a mysterious deadly virus
Published on November 28th, 2012
0World Health Organization announced the discovery of a mysterious deadly virus
One person died of a mysterious virus that affects the respiratory tract and three cases were discovered in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said the World Health Organization.
“These findings do raise the number of infections confirmed by laboratory testing”, said WHO. A Saudi man died because of this corona virus in June, and a man from Qatar was hospitalized in London with the virus after visiting Saudi Arabia.
WHO has confirmed that the new strain is part of corona virus family, which includes deadly SARS virus, and the usual cold. What distinguishes this new virus SARS is that very quickly it can destroy a patients kidney.
Given that so far very few cases have been identified that appear to be linked, WHO announced that the virus does not seem to be very contagious. In his new ad, released this Friday, the agency said that it is possible that many cases are not detected by the authorities.
WHO requested upon countries worldwide to “continue to monitor acute respiratory infections”, adding that WHO experts working on developing specific advice for this new virus.
“With the accumulation of new information, you should start from the assumption that the virus is not restricted to the two countries where cases have been identified so far”, said WHO.
The closest “relative “of the virus is found in Asia, in bats more precisely. “They’re like human viruses”, related Ron Fouchier, Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. “So, we start from the assumption that the source of this virus is animal”, ended the researcher.
Most recent infections were recorded in Saudi Arabia, as these two members of the same family, who lived together. Also, two other cases with similar symptoms have been reported to authorities.
In another case registered in Qatar, the patient was sent to Germany in October for treatment at a hospital specializing in diseases of the lungs, German specialists managed to keep him alive.
WHO experts recommended doctors to “test all patients seem to suffer from pneumonia without explanation to see if the new corona virus is present in their body”. Patients should be tested even if they have not travelled to Saudi Arabia or Qatar, according to the agency.
According to a study published this week in the scientific journal of the American Society for Microbiology, mysterious virus appears related to a disease found in bats.
Discovery-Zone