From CIDRAP - March 13, 2013
[editing is mine]
Investigators in Saudi Arabia learned that the latest person to die of a
novel coronavirus (NCoV) infection had visited a farm before he got
sick, according to a Saudi Arabian health official. Similar findings
have been reported in at least 2 of the 14 other NCoV cases reported
since the virus emerged last year. The latest case, involving a
39-year-old man in Saudi Arabia, was announced by the World Health
Organization yesterday. Ziad A. Memish, MD, deputy minister for public
health in Saudi Arabia, told CIDRAP News by e-mail, "What we know is
that the patient has not traveled recently outside KSA [the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia] and he has been to a farm outside Riyadh owned by his
brother." Previous reports revealed that a Qatari man who was treated
for NCoV infection in Germany last fall owned a farm where some goats
had been sick before he fell ill himself. Also, a Saudi Arabian gym
teacher whose NCoV illness was
reported in November had visited a farm 3 days before he got sick.
The source of the novel virus has not been identified, though it is
related to coronaviruses found in bats. Memish commented that all
patients hospitalized with pneumonia in Saudi Arabia are being screened
for NCoV infection, "a strategy not implemented to my knowledge by any
country in the world and that's why we continue to sporadically detect
new cases. It will be good if other countries apply the same strategy to
give the world an indication how wide spread this disease." Eight of
the 15 confirmed cases have occurred in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/other/sars/news/mar1313scan.html
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