Health & Medicine
Mysterious SARS-Like Virus Claims Two More Lives in Germany and Britain
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Mar 27, 2013 12:31 PM EDT
The mysterious SARS-like virus that appeared to have originated in the Middle East has claimed two more victims in Germany and in Britain, according to recent reports.
This brings the new reported death toll to 11, and six others have been determined to have been infected by the virus, according to the World Health Organization.
Health officials are concerned that SARS-like virus could come to the United States or Canada, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have alerted state and local health departments to be on the lookout for suspicious illnesses in people who have recently traveled to the Middle East, according to ABC News.
The latest victims were a 73-year-old man from the United Arab Emirates who died in Munich, Germany, after being flown there for treatment, and a United Kingdom resident whose age is not known but who had traveled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia before falling ill, according to a WHO statement.
"We're on the alert looking for this, and I think that's why these cases are now being discovered," Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., told ABCNews.com. "Because people with puzzling pneumonia who we can't figure out what's going on right away are having specimens taken and sent to the reference lab for testing."
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First Posted: Mar 27, 2013 12:31 PM EDT
The mysterious SARS-like virus that appeared to have originated in the Middle East has claimed two more victims in Germany and in Britain, according to recent reports.
This brings the new reported death toll to 11, and six others have been determined to have been infected by the virus, according to the World Health Organization.
Health officials are concerned that SARS-like virus could come to the United States or Canada, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have alerted state and local health departments to be on the lookout for suspicious illnesses in people who have recently traveled to the Middle East, according to ABC News.
The latest victims were a 73-year-old man from the United Arab Emirates who died in Munich, Germany, after being flown there for treatment, and a United Kingdom resident whose age is not known but who had traveled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia before falling ill, according to a WHO statement.
"We're on the alert looking for this, and I think that's why these cases are now being discovered," Dr. William Schaffner, chairman of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., told ABCNews.com. "Because people with puzzling pneumonia who we can't figure out what's going on right away are having specimens taken and sent to the reference lab for testing."
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone