.PNG) |
| WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl while addressing a press conference in Geneva [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
Geneva: The World Health Organization has confirmed that the new virus found in two men from the Arabian Peninsula, is
not the SARS virus and differs from the SARS virus in that it causes very rapid
renal failure.
The two cases, one a healthy Qatari man who had travelled to
Saudi Arabia and is currently hospitalized in the UK and the other a 60 year
old Saudi national who died earlier this year, resulted in acute respiratory
syndrome and renal failure.
This novel virus has been identified as one of a large
family of coronaviruses, which include the viruses that cause both the common
cold and SARS but the WHO Spokesman emphasized to journalists in Geneva, that
the virus "will not become SARS" and is not "SARS-like".
There is no indication, at this point, Gregory Hartl said,
of person-to-person transmission of the virus but WHO is currently in the
process of obtaining further information to determine the public health
implications of these two confirmed cases and the mode of transmission. No
travel restrictions are currently in place. -UNifeed