The World Health Organization cautioned all countries to be watchful about the SARS-like virus spreading globally causing deaths, according to Medical Xpress.
The virus infected a person who had visited Middle East and Pakistan recently. Another relative of the family has also been infected. Both residents of U.K., are admitted to a hospital in Manchester. A third member of the same family was reported to be suffering from the virus on Friday by the Health Protection Agency, but is recovering from the infection quickly. HPA said the person had contracted coronavirus, reported the Guardian, and is being refrained from meeting any person outside the family as a precautionary measure.
The fatal virus has infected 12 persons globally killing 5 of them. Three people from Saudi Arabia and two from Jordan died of the infection. However, HPA hasnt yet classified the virus spread as an outbreak as the number of reported cases is not large.
"Although this case appears to be due to person-to-person transmission, the risk of infection in contacts in most circumstances is still considered to be low. If novel coronavirus were more infectious, we would have expected to have seen a larger number of cases than we have seen since the first case was reported three months ago," Professor John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the HPA, said. "However, this new development does justify the measures that were immediately put into place to prevent any further spread of infection and to identify and follow up contacts of known cases.
"We would like to emphasize that the risk associated with novel coronavirus to the general UK population remains very low," he said. "The HPA will continue to work closely with national and international health authorities and will share any further advice with health professionals and the public if and when more information becomes available."
Further testing is being conducted for the new coronavirus in order to identify if any sign of person-to-person transmission is been noted, WHO said.
"Based on the current situation and available information, WHO encourages all Member States to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns," the United Nations health agency said in a statement.
