New SARS-like Norovirus infects Brit. 5 of 10 have already died.
This is a new virulent virus that is being detected internationally. The known infection rate is low, but the mortality rate is very high. 50% at this time.
Quote:
A new virus from the same family as SARS that sparked a global alert last September has been found in another patient in Britain, health officials said on Monday.The latest case of infection with the new virus known as a coronavirus brings the total number confirmed globally to 10, of whom five have died.
The World Health Organization said the latest infection was "a sporadic case" and did not alter the WHO's risk assessment. It added, however, that the new case "does indicate that the virus is persistent".
The British patient, who recently had traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, is receiving intensive care treatment in hospital in the city of Manchester, northern England.
The new virus, which the WHO refers to as novel coronavirus or NCoV, shares some of the symptoms of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome — a coronavirus which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.
Symptoms include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.
The WHO said the new patient, who is a resident of the United Kingdom, developed symptoms on Jan. 26. A series of laboratory tests of respiratory specimens showed the patient had contracted both an H1N1 swine flu infection and a confirmed NCoV infection.
This is very similar to the "swine flu" outbreak that killed a number of Americans in 2009-10 (but there is no archived news to find on it anymore). It looks as if it is more deadly than the earlier version.
New SARS-like virus infects British patient in 10th case globally
