SARS-like virus found in Middle East

LONDON -- Global health officials are closely monitoring a new respiratory virus related to SARS that is believed to have killed one person in Saudi Arabia and left a Qatari citizen in critical condition in London.

The germ is a coronavirus, from a family of viruses that cause the common cold, as well as SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed some 800 people, mostly in Asia, in a 2003 epidemic.

British officials alerted the World Health Organization on Saturday of the new virus in a man who was transferred from Qatar to be treated in London. He had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and is suffering kidney failure.

WHO said virus samples from the patient are almost identical to those of a 60-year-old Saudi national who died earlier this year. The source of infection remains unknown.

Health officials don't know yet whether the virus could spread as rapidly as SARS did, or if it might kill as many people. SARS, which jumped to humans from civet cats in China, hit more than 30 countries worldwide after spreading from Hong Kong.

"It's still [in the] very early days," said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman. "At the moment, we have two sporadic cases and there are still a lot of holes to be filled in."

It was unclear how the virus spreads, he said. Coronaviruses are typically spread in the air, but Hartl said the possibility the patients were infected directly by animals exists. There was no evidence yet of any human-to-human transmission, he said.

So far, the only connection between the cases is a history of travel in Saudi Arabia.