WHO monitoring new virus from same family as SARS in Saudi Arabia; 2 cases known reported

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A woman puts on a protective mask to protect against SARS at a wash station at the entrance to North York General Hospital in Toronto in this May 26, 2003 file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Frayer

British health authorities have alerted the U.N. of a new respiratory virus in a severely ill patient from Qatar.

The man was sickened by a coronavirus, which causes most common colds but also causes SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. In 2003, SARS killed hundreds of people, mostly in Asia, in a short-lived outbreak.

Britain’s Health Protection Agency said in a statement late Sunday that the 49-year-old patient had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia.

The U.N. health agency says virus samples from the patient were almost identical to those of a 60-year-old Saudi national who died earlier this year.

The World Health Organization says it is trying to determine the public health implications of the two cases but isn’t currently recommending travel restrictions.

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