RIYADH — The Ministry of Health has taken precautionary measures against the spread of coronavirus after five people infected with the SARS-like virus died in Al-Ahsa region during the last few days.The ministry said all the deaths as well as the infections occurred in the Al-Ahsa region in the eastern part of the Kingdom.
Known as novel coronavirus or hCoV-EMC, the virus was first detected in mid-2012 and is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in East Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts.hCoV-EMC stands for human coronavirus-Erasmus Medical Center, after the Dutch health institution that identified it.
The health ministry said it is taking “all precautionary measures for persons who have been in contact with the infected people... and has taken samples from them to examine if they are infected.”
The ministry has started conducting surveillance search of all persons who mingled with the patients, whether family members or acquaintances, and testing their samples, to determine if any of them has any sign of contracting the virus.
The ministry said that its announcement comes as part of its transparency policy toward public regarding all the health matters that might affect them.
Sixteen people have now died from 23 cases detected in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Germany and Britain. Saudi Arabia has accounted for most of the deaths, with 11 people including the five new fatalities.
In Geneva, a spokesman for the World Health Organization would not comment on why so many of the cases have occurred in the Saudi kingdom.
“We have received a formal notification from the Saudis about these cases,” spokesman Glenn Thomas told AFP.
When asked if the WHO is planning to issue a travel warning for Saudi Arabia, he said this was “unlikely” since “there has been no change in the risk assessment.”
Coronaviruse causes most common colds and pneumonia, but are also to blame for unusual conditions such as SARS which killed more than 800 people when it swept out of China in 2003.
The new virus is different from SARS, in that it can cause rapid kidney failure.
The strain is shrouded in mystery, and the WHO does not yet know how it is transmitted or how widespread it is.
The WHO said a 73-year-old Saudi man died in Germany in March from the lethal new virus. He had been traveling in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia before falling ill, and was transferred to Munich from Abu Dhabi on March 19.
Six research monkeys infected with novel human coronavirus were found to quickly develop pneumonia, according to a letter by National Institutes of Health experts published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
After being exposed to samples of the virus, the rhesus macaques fell ill within 24 hours, with symptoms including elevated temperature, lack of appetite, coughing and fast breathing. http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130503164057
