WHO advises doctors worldwide to be on alert for new virus related to SARS

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A woman puts on a protective mask in Toronto in this May 26, 2003 photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Frayer

LONDON – Global health officials have alerted doctors to be on the lookout for new cases of a virus related to SARS but said there was no sign the disease was behaving like the killer respiratory syndrome that killed hundreds in 2003.

Earlier this week, the World Health Organization announced the new coronavirus had been found in a critically ill Qatari man being treated in London as well as in a Saudi Arabian man who died several months earlier. Genetic sequencing found the viruses in the two men to be nearly identical.

Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman, said Thursday the two might have been infected directly by animals and there was no indication of human to human spread.

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