Sun May 12, 2013 12:28pm EDT
(Removes erroneous reference to deaths in France, para 8)
* Experts say long close contact needed for transmission
* Infected man in France had shared room with sufferer
* Saudi Arabia has biggest cluster of cases
By Angus McDowall
RIYADH, May 12 (Reuters) - World Health Organisation (WHO)
officials said on Sunday it seemed likely a new coronavirus that
has killed at least 18 people in the Middle East and Europe
could be passed between humans, but only after prolonged
contact.
A virus from the same family triggered the outbreak of
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world
after emerging in Asia and killed 775 people in 2003.
On Sunday French authorities announced that a second man had
been diagnosed with the disease after sharing a hospital room
with France's only other sufferer.
WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda told reporters
in Saudi Arabia, the site of the largest cluster of infections,
there was no evidence so far the virus was able to sustain
"generalised transmission in communities" - a scenario that
would raise the spectre of a pandemic.
But he added: "Of most concern ... is the fact that the
different clusters seen in multiple countries ... increasingly
support the hypothesis that when there is close contact, this
novel coronavirus can transmit from person to person.
"There is a need for countries to ... increase levels of
awareness," he said.
A public health expert who declined to be identified, said
"close contact" meant being in the same small, enclosed space
with an infected person for a prolonged period.
The virus first emerged in the Gulf last year, but cases
have also been recorded in Britain and France among people who
had recently been in the Middle East. A total of 34 cases
worldwide have been confirmed by blood tests so far.
NEW DEATHS
Saudi Deputy Health Minister for Public Health Ziad Memish
told reporters that, of 15 confirmed cases in the most recent
outbreak, in al-Ahsa district of Eastern Province, nine had
died, two more than previously reported.
Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said in a statement the
country had had 24 confirmed cases since last summer, of whom 15
had died. Fukuda said he was not sure if the two newly reported
Saudi deaths were included in the numbers confirmed by the WHO.
Memish added that three suspected cases in Saudi Arabia were
still under investigation, including previous negative results
that were being re-examined.
The first French patient was confirmed as suffering from the
disease on Wednesday after travelling in the Gulf. The second
patient was transferred to intensive care on Sunday after the
two men shared a room in a hospital in Lille.
Professor Benoit Guery, head of the Lille hospital's
infectious diseases unit, said the first patient had not been
immediately isolated becuase he presented "quite atypical"
symptoms.
He added in comments broadcast by BFMTV channel the case
suggested that airborne transmission of the virus was possible,
though still unusual, and that the public "should not be
concerned" as there had been only 34 cases globally in a year.
Fukuda, part of a WHO team visiting Saudi Arabia to
investigate the spread of the disease, said although no specific
vaccine or medication was yet available for novel coronavirus,
patients were responding to treatment.
"The care that is taken in the hospitals, in terms of using
respirators well, in terms of treating pneumonia, in terms of
treating complications, in terms of providing support, these
steps can get patients through this very severe illness," he
said.
Fukuda said that as far as he knew all cases in the latest
outbreak in al-Ahsa district were directly or indirectly linked
to one hospital.
He added that Saudi Arabian authorities had taken novel
coronavirus very seriously and had initiated necessary health
measures such as increased surveillance systems.
(Additional reporting by Nicolas Delame in Paris; Editing by
William Maclean and Andrew Roche)