HKU eyes Middle East help in fight against new bug

Mary Ann Benitez and Beatrice Siu
Friday, February 22, 2013

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong are looking for collaboration in the Middle East to study the new SARS-like virus, which they believe may have originated from a Japanese bat species.
This comes as the Centre for Health Protection has stepped up monitoring for the new respiratory illness that is similar to the deadly SARS virus.
Twelve people have fallen sick from the novel coronavirus, or NCoV, since it first emerged in Saudi Arabia in September. Six of them died.
Yuen Kwok-yung, chair of infectious diseases at the university's department of microbiology said: "We are trying to find collaborators in the Middle East but cannot disclose any details at this stage."
Samples of the virus have been provided to HKU, and are being used to grow the virus and conduct research.
Yuen said that after the SARS outbreak in 2003, their team continued research on the SARS coronavirus and discovered the bat coronavirus, named HKU4 and HKU5, in 2006-2007.
The viruses, which were found in Japanese pipistrelle bats, can be found not only in Hong Kong but also in South China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
"So there is quite a possibility that the pipistrelle bats could transmit the virus into camels, goats, rodents in the Middle East, which somehow got into humans. That is something we can hypothesize," Yuen said.
Like the SARS virus, NCoV might have been transmitted from bats to other animals and to humans.
He said so far the transmission of the NCoV may not be very efficient and could be confined to household contact.
"At this stage, we have to be careful but there is no cause for panic," Yuen said.
The center's controller Leung Ting- hung said the mortality rate of NCoV is very high, and he cited the the case of a British family of three.
The son, 39, died after being infected by his 60-year-old father who fell sick after traveling to Saudi Arabia.
A younger female member had mild symptoms and did not require hospitalization.
The Hospital Authority's chief infection control officer Dominic Tsang Ngai- chon said suspected cases who have travelled to the Middle East and the UK, or where cases have occurred, and who came into contact with patients, will be isolated and tested.
The test results will be available in 24 hours.
The first 20 patients who test positive will be transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital. Also, 15 hospitals with A&E services could make available 1,000 beds for those kind of patients. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=131322&sid=39037980&con_type=1