Loading...
In 2003, a novel coronavirus spread rapidly from China, causing a major epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) with very high mortality. Now, a new coronavirus — different from the one that caused SARS and unlike any thus far described in humans — has been identified in two previously healthy adults with severe respiratory illness.
The first case occurred in June 2012 in a 60-year-old man from Saudi Arabia. He was hospitalized and subsequently died. The second case involved a 49-year-old man from Qatar who became ill in September 2012. He was evacuated to the U.K. for intensive care and remains hospitalized in critical condition. No further clinical information has been provided. Genetic sequencing showed that the viruses from …