Thursday, September 27, 2012

Factbox: New virus can cause fever, cough, breathing problems


LONDON | Thu Sep 27, 2012 5:00pm IST


(Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a global alert about the emergence of a new virus that was previously unknown in humans and can cause a potentially fatal acute respiratory infection.

Here is an at-a-glance guide to the virus:
* The virus belongs to a family called coronaviruses and has so far been confirmed in only two cases globally. Both occurred between July and September 2012.

* The first case was in a 60-year-old man in Saudi Arabia and proved fatal. The second is in a 49-year-old Qatari man who recently visited Saudi Arabia. He had the infection diagnosed after travelling to London in early September.

* The WHO has not yet given the virus a name, but scientists at Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) refer to it as "London1_novel CoV 2012".

Continued: 
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/27/health-virus-factbox-idINDEE88Q08Q20120927

No comments: