New Coronavirus Can be Spread Amongst Humans- WHO

There is a new lethal coronavirus that could potentially spread to many countries around the world. It is closely related to the SARS coronavirus and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that it can spread from human-to-human.

The disease has flu-like symptoms, can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure in human beings.

Dr Sue Huang, Director - WHO National Influenza Centre, National Centre for Biosecurity and Infectious Disease, Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) told reporters that:

"As of 8 May 2013, a total of 30 laboratory-confirmed human cases of novel coronavirus, including 18 deaths, have been reported to the WHO since March 2012. However, the most recent 13 new cases including 7 deaths have been reported since 14 April 2013 from Saudi Arabia. These cases presented with severe acute respiratory disease requiring hospitalizations and eventually needed mechanical ventilation. There are small clusters with limited person to person transmission. However, there is no evidence that this virus has the capacity to cause sustained person-to-person transmission in community. Thus, this new virus has not reached a point to cause a pandemic."

It is important to take this issue seriously and take precautions when encountering people with flu-like symptoms.