New Sars-Like Virus Can Spread Between The People

Health officials in UK believe they have strongest evidence that a new respiratory illness similar to dedly Sars virus can spread from person to person. Cases of the infection may come from contact with animals, if the virus can spread between people it poses much more serious threat. One person in the UK is thought to have caught the infection from a relative. However, officials say the threat to the whole population remains very low. There have been 11 confirmed cases around the world. It causes pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure, five patients have died. This is the third case identified in the UK. The first case was a patient flown in from Qatar for treatment. The second was linked to travel to Middle East and Pakistan. The virus is then thought to have spread from second patient to close relative. There have been suggestions of person to person transmission in earlier cases in the Middle East, but this was not confirmed. The third UK case is being treated in intensive care in Queen Elizbeth Hospital Birmigham. The patient is known to have underlying health condition which left him with a weakened immune system. This may have made him susceptible to the infection. There have been no signs of spreading the infection to the staff in the hospital. Prof John Watson said," Confirmed novel caronavirus infection in a person without btravel history to the Middle Est suggests that person-to-person ntrnsmission has occured, and that it occurred in the UK. He added that though this case provided strong evidence for person-to-person transmission, the risk of infection in most circumstances was still considered to be very low.