Family infected by SARS-like virus
Novel coronavirus – a disease similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) – has infected four people in the UK, killing one of them.
The disease was thought to have been brought to the UK by a man that is being treated in Manchester, following a recent visit to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. His 39-year-old relative died in Birmingham on February 17.
A second relative has been treated for a mild form of the illness, with a further 100 people that had been in close contact with the family having been tested and given the all-clear.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB), where the fatality took place, has released a statement informing that the man was already an immuno-compromised outpatient, who was receiving long-term treatment for an unrelated illness.
The hospital assured that the patient's admission to its critical care unit had been under "stringent" infection controls.
It is currently unknown what is causing the disease, which was identified last year in the Middle East. It has so far killed six people out of 12 confirmed cases worldwide.
Novel coronavirus is thought to be closely-related to a bat virus and is very similar to SARS, which caused a major international health scare in 2003, killing more than 800 people.
QEHB is now working closely with the Health Protection Agency (HPA).
Professor John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the HPA, said: "We would like to emphasise that the risk associated with novel coronavirus to the general UK population remains very low."
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
