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The world is threatened with a new coronavirus strain, similar to the virus that causes SARS

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
 
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16 May 2013, 09:00

Analysts of the World Health Organization (WHO) are sounding the alarm: a new type of dangerous coronavirus is beginning to spread across the south-western Asian and European countries. Every week, WHO's Geneva headquarters receives information about new cases of infection, fortunately, so far isolated. However, as of May 12 this year, according to statistics from the coronavirus (nCov or nCoV), 18 people died.

Specialists already today are convinced that the virus is able to migrate not only among animals, but also from person to person with close enough contact. The Deputy Director General of WHO Keji Fukuda informed the media at a special press conference. Journalists were not accidentally gathered in El Riyadh, on the Arabian Peninsula. It was in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, according to the biologists' assumption, that the first infection occurred. A new type of coronavirus was isolated from a patient treated in the UK. A citizen of Qatar, who was in Saudi Arabia shortly before the onset of the first severe symptoms, was rushed by a special flight to the London clinic in September 2012. Earlier, a lethal outcome from nCoV of a 60-year-old subject of the kingdom was already recorded, which died of kidney failure in the Netherlands. English physicians compared and confirmed the identity of DNA viruses in both cases. Anxiety of WHO specialists is due to the fact that the type of coronavirus detected can be transmitted by contact, therefore, its spread can be rapid under certain conditions.

Coronaviruses are a fairly large family of extracellular infectious agents, the infection of which in the first stage manifests itself as symptoms of common colds, but further causes a life threatening condition for the patient - SARS - a severe acute respiratory syndrome or "purple death". Previously, these viruses were most often detected in animals, since the autumn of last year, coronavirus (nCov or nCoV) was isolated in the blood serum and human tissues. The new strain has a distant similarity to the virus that causes atypical pneumonia, the outbreak of which was recorded in 2002 in China and Hong Kong. The infection then spread to 30 countries, and the last case of SARS was diagnosed 10 years ago.

In March 2013, WHO headquarters received information from the R. Koh Institute on a new diagnosed case of coronavirus infection (nCov). Once again, the patient was a resident of Saudi Arabia, he was rushed to the Munich clinic, but the efforts made by German physicians for a week were futile, the patient died. A month before in the UK, a lethal outcome was recorded in a patient who visited Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

As of today, WHO on its official website provides information on 17 officially confirmed cases of new coronavirus (nCov), 11 people died, despite all the efforts of doctors. WHO strongly recommends that all countries strengthen the epidemiological surveillance of SARI cases - severe acute respiratory infections and take a more careful look at atypical symptomatic and clinical course diseases. Today, experts of the world organization have closely engaged in joint work with experts of those states where the main quantity of coronavirus infection (nCov) was registered, these are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan. Surveillance does not yet imply any restrictions on entry into these countries, but the situation continues to evolve. On May 5, 2013, French specialists reported on the next case of nCov. This is the second patient in France, who has been diagnosed with a strain of nCov. A person infected with the virus, being in the same room with an infected nCov. Patients.

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