SARS-like pathogen infects patient from Qatar

Britain reports infection with a possible SARS pathogen

09/24/2012

In the UK, a SARS-like virus was discovered in a 49-year-old man from Saudi Arabia. About ten years after the end of the pandemic, a new variant of the pathogen has emerged that caused tens of thousands of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) diseases in the year 2002/2003.

„On 22 September 2012, the United Kingdom informed WHO of a case of acute respiratory syndrome with kidney failure in a person who had traveled to Saudi Arabia and Qatar“, This is the current communication from the World Health Organization. The authorities were alarmed. However, no comparable rapid spread of SARS-like pathogens as in the pandemic in 2002/2003 is currently expected. The infection was detected in a 49-year-old man from Qatar, who had been in Saudi Arabia before his illness. Currently, the man is being cared for in a London hospital.

For the first time, the typical symptoms of SARS were noted in the patient in early September. A few days later, admission to an intensive care unit in Doha (Qatar) followed. After only two days, the patient was transferred from there to the United Kingdom on the basis of his complaints by air rescue. Subsequent laboratory tests by the UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA) confirmed the presence of a novel coronavirus, according to WHO's announcement under the heading „Renewed coronavirus infection in the UK“. The coronavirus family includes the causative agents of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, which claimed more than 1,000 deaths worldwide in the wake of the pandemic some ten years ago. At that time, the infected people fell ill with atypical pneumonia with high fever, cough and severe respiratory distress. The pathogens spread alarmingly fast and infected many people, especially in Asia. However, the rapid intervention of WHO significantly limited the extent of the pandemic, and in 2004, WHO finally declared the end of the SARS epidemic.

The coronaviruses were by no means definitely gone. There was always the danger that a new coronavirus could infect humans. This is apparently the case for the 49-year-old patient in the UK. The coronaviruses preferentially affect the respiratory tract, impairing the function of the tiny cilia that are needed to cleanse the lungs. This increases the risk of a rapidly progressing severe pneumonia, as was the case with the patient from Qatar. In addition, there are often more complaints, such as in the current case of acute kidney failure. In addition to fever and cough especially sore throat, headache and muscle and limb pain are known as accompanying symptoms.

Experts from the UK's Health Protection Agency have sequenced and isolated the virus in the 49-year-old patient. Subsequently, the detected pathogens were compared with a coronavirus previously detected by the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands in the lung tissue of a deceased 60-year-old man from Saudi Arabia. The comparison showed an almost 100 percent agreement. Thus, the SARS-like pathogens were this year for the second time in humans proven that had at least temporarily resided in Saudi Arabia. However, WHO does not believe there is any reason for travel restrictions.

For safety, however, in the coming weeks, all persons who had contact with the infected, to be examined, but there is no indication of further diseases, so the official press release. „As only two cases are known worldwide so far and there are no specific indications for their spread, there are currently no special precautions for the population or the return travelers“, stressed the head of the HPA Department of Respiratory Diseases, John Watson. (Fp)

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