Cases of New Coronavirus Announced By WHO

sars-coronavirus-cdc

Lung tissue containing the original SARS coronavirus. Credit: CDC, 2003

The World Health Organization announced four new cases of the novel coronavirus that caused a great deal of worry just before the October hajj season. There have been four additional laboratory-confirmed cases. Out of these patients, one has died. Three of the new cases were in Qatar, and the other one was in Saudi Arabia.

The WHO announced this in a bulletin. Analysis of the deceased patient is still ongoing. The new coronavirus is worrisome because it’s related to SARS. On November 13, the UK’s Health Protection Agency announced that it had achieved a complete genome of the virus obtained in London. It’s closely related to a coronavirus isolated from bats in the Netherlands several years ago.

The WHO statement doesn’t give ages, genders of places of residence for the new cases, and it says nothing about the way that they were infected. It does suggest that the virus may be more widely distributed than was previously thought.

There have been some indications that the flow of information on this new virus may not be complete as health authorities might wish. The WHO recommends that countries should consider testing patients with unexplained pneumonia cases for the new coronavirus, even in the absence of travel or any association with the two affected countries.

1 Comment on "Cases of New Coronavirus Announced By WHO"

  1. Madanagopal.V.C. | November 27, 2012 at 4:44 am | Reply

    Protein sequencing of the most dreadful corona virus of its protein coat is very important to put a check on it. HIV and SARS like viruses are no doubt belong to corona virus family. They have a powerful protein coat, so that they can attack vital cells like immune cells without themselves getting destroyed in their transit. Other types of viruses can only attack the superficial epithelium cells or mucus to produce fever and hence can be eradicated easily by body’s defense mechanism from immune cells creating anti-bodies to counter the same. Just like bacteria getting drug resistant by altering their protein coats so that they may not invite the molecular adhesion of antibiotic molecules, so much so, these primordial viruses had developed this protein strengthening strategies for their existence. With this in mind the research in disrupting protein coats of the dreadful corona virus family assumes utmost importance, instead of finding separate medicines for HIV, SARS etc., in future. The new pathway should eradicate any type of corona virus family in future. Thank You.

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