International health experts are working full time to find ways of a deadly new virus originating from West Asia that has so far killed nine and infected 15 adults.

The precise source of the coronavirus (SARS CoV) has yet to be determined. But it belongs to the same family as the deadly SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)-type virus that can result in pneumonia and kidney failure.

In Europe and the US, health experts are fearful about a repetition of the 2003 SARS outbreak that infected over 8,000 persons in more than 30 countries. An estimated one in ten patients subsequently died.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) acknowledged the emergence of what it described as “a new coronavirus capable of causing severe disease” that “raises concerns because of the experience with SARS.”

A statement issued by the WHO added, “The WHO has closely monitored the situation since detection of the first case and has been working with partners to ensure a high degree of preparedness, should the new virus be found to be sufficiently transmissible to cause community outbreaks. Some viruses are able to cause limited human-to-human transmission under condition of close contact, as occurs in families, but are not so easily transmissible that they are likely to cause 
larger and sustained community outbreaks.”

As with SARS, the new coronavirus may have originated in animals like bats and goats before infecting humans. So the first clear evidence of human-to-human transmission within a Pakistani-origin family in the UK has set the alarm bells ringing.

“This recent cluster provides the first clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of this novel coronavirus, coinfection of the coronavirus with another pathogen (influenza A), and a case of mild illness associated with the coronavirus infection,” says a statement posted by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) based in Atlanta, US.

“Persons who develop severe acute lower respiratory illness within 10 days after travelling from the Arabian Peninsula or neighbouring countries should continue to be evaluated, according to current guidelines. Persons, whose respiratory illness remains unexplained and who meet the criteria for ‘patient under investigation’, should be reported immediately to the CDC through the state and local health departments. Persons who develop severe acute lower respiratory illness of known etiology within 10 days after travelling from the Arabian Peninsula or neighbouring countries but who do not respond to appropriate therapy may be considered for evaluation for novel coronavirus infection.

“In addition, persons who develop severe acute lower respiratory illness who are close contacts of a symptomatic traveller who developed fever and acute respiratory illness within 10 days of travelling from the Arabian Peninsula or neighbouring countries may be considered for evaluation for novel coronavirus infection. Testing of specimens for the novel coronavirus will be conducted at the CDC.”

In the UK, the widow of a man recently infected and killed by the new virus has told the British media how her father-in-law, Abid Hussain, was the unwitting bearer of the disease that killed her husband.

Azima Hussain has explained how Abid travelled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, early last February to pray for the recovery of his son, Khalid, who was in a Birmingham hospital where he was undergoing chemotherapy for brain cancer.

"The cancer was complicated, it was right behind the eyes and nose," Azima told the Guardian newspaper in London. "Doctors said he needed chemotherapy to make the tumour smaller, before they could operate. His father went back to Pakistan to tell the family about Khalid's cancer and decided to come back via Mecca to pray for his recovery. It was weird, no one could have expected what happened."