Saturday 23 February 2013
Last Update 22 February 2013 9:15 pm
A Riyadh resident has died from a rare form of a coronavirus, according to the Saudi Ministry of Health (MoH).
Undersecretary to the Ministry of Health for Public Health, Dr. Ziad Al-Memish, told Arab News yesterday that the victim was a 61-year-old Saudi woman. The cause of death was confirmed by a laboratory test.
It is the third such fatality in the Kingdom and the constitutes the 13th confirmed case of a coronavirus infection. It is the seventh death blamed on the virus worldwide.
The Saudi patient was hospitalized on Jan. 29 in a hospital in Riyadh and died there on Feb. 10.
The woman had recently returned from abroad with symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the official said. She did not respond to treatment.
In September last year, the ministry reported three cases of the virus, two of whom were Saudis while one was from Qatar. Two of the patients died in Saudi Arabia.
Prior to becoming ill, the Qatari patient had traveled to Saudi Arabia. He was placed in intensive care in Doha before being transferred to the UK. The sixth death attributed to coronavirus was a patient in the UK. That man, who is one of three people in the same family with the virus, is believed to have contracted the illness from a relative. It is the first case of human-to-human transmission of the virus in the UK.
One of the family members appeared to have contracted the virus from a family member during a recent visit to the Middle East and Pakistan. The virus, known as novel coronavirus, or NCoV, was unknown in humans until it emerged in the Middle East last year. There have now been 13 confirmed cases worldwide.
WHO first issued an international alert in September 2012 after the virus infected a Qatari man in Britain who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Memish said that people need not worry about the virus as it is believed that it cannot be transmitted from person-to-person. Still, he cautioned people to take measures to avoid the virus.
"We are also monitoring the virus in all parts of the Kingdom through the regional directorates of the MOH,” he said.
Al-Memish, who is also the chairman of the National Scientific Committee for Infectious Diseases, said that only a few people had been found positive in the world.
Coronaviruses are considered to be one of the common agents of the common cold. Symptoms of the virus include runny nose, general feeling of illness, mild sore throat, cough, headache, low fever and chills. It can also cause respiratory, intestinal and neurological illness.
The official said coronaviruses are well-known and most of those infected recover completely with no complications after receiving the needed supportive therapy.
WHO urged countries to consider testing for the new virus when patients appear with unexplained pneumonias or with severe, progressive or complicated respiratory illnesses that do not respond to treatment — especially if those patients have recently traveled to or come from parts of the world where infections have occurred. http://arabnews.com/moh-confirms-death-woman-rare-form-coronavirus?
Undersecretary to the Ministry of Health for Public Health, Dr. Ziad Al-Memish, told Arab News yesterday that the victim was a 61-year-old Saudi woman. The cause of death was confirmed by a laboratory test.
It is the third such fatality in the Kingdom and the constitutes the 13th confirmed case of a coronavirus infection. It is the seventh death blamed on the virus worldwide.
The Saudi patient was hospitalized on Jan. 29 in a hospital in Riyadh and died there on Feb. 10.
The woman had recently returned from abroad with symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the official said. She did not respond to treatment.
In September last year, the ministry reported three cases of the virus, two of whom were Saudis while one was from Qatar. Two of the patients died in Saudi Arabia.
Prior to becoming ill, the Qatari patient had traveled to Saudi Arabia. He was placed in intensive care in Doha before being transferred to the UK. The sixth death attributed to coronavirus was a patient in the UK. That man, who is one of three people in the same family with the virus, is believed to have contracted the illness from a relative. It is the first case of human-to-human transmission of the virus in the UK.
One of the family members appeared to have contracted the virus from a family member during a recent visit to the Middle East and Pakistan. The virus, known as novel coronavirus, or NCoV, was unknown in humans until it emerged in the Middle East last year. There have now been 13 confirmed cases worldwide.
WHO first issued an international alert in September 2012 after the virus infected a Qatari man in Britain who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Memish said that people need not worry about the virus as it is believed that it cannot be transmitted from person-to-person. Still, he cautioned people to take measures to avoid the virus.
"We are also monitoring the virus in all parts of the Kingdom through the regional directorates of the MOH,” he said.
Al-Memish, who is also the chairman of the National Scientific Committee for Infectious Diseases, said that only a few people had been found positive in the world.
Coronaviruses are considered to be one of the common agents of the common cold. Symptoms of the virus include runny nose, general feeling of illness, mild sore throat, cough, headache, low fever and chills. It can also cause respiratory, intestinal and neurological illness.
The official said coronaviruses are well-known and most of those infected recover completely with no complications after receiving the needed supportive therapy.
WHO urged countries to consider testing for the new virus when patients appear with unexplained pneumonias or with severe, progressive or complicated respiratory illnesses that do not respond to treatment — especially if those patients have recently traveled to or come from parts of the world where infections have occurred. http://arabnews.com/moh-confirms-death-woman-rare-form-coronavirus?
