WHO issues guidance on containing Sars-like virus

The World Health Organisation yesterday urged health workers around the world to report any patient with acute respiratory infection who may have travelled to Saudi Arabia or Qatar and been exposed to a new Sars-like virus confirmed in two people so far.

The measures include monitoring entrances through land, sea and air to evaluate people entering, and obtain samples if any symptoms are apparent

The UN agency put out a global alert on Sunday saying a new virus had infected a 49-year-old Qatari who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia – where another man with an almost-identical virus had already died.

The Qatari remained critically ill in hospital in Britain, according to the WHO ’s latest information as of Tuesday.

The WHO said yesterday no new case of acute respiratory syndrome with renal failure due to the new virus had been reported, but its investigations continued.

“We’ve got things in place should things change, should the behaviour of the virus change,” spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

Britain’s Health Protection Agency and respiratory disease experts said there was no immed-iate cause for concern.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has taken precautions to prevent disease spreading among Muslim pilgrims during the annual Hajj, which begins in late October. Some arrive by plane, others by boat or by car.

“The Health Ministry has taken preventative measures to deal with the influx of over two million Hajj pilgrims,” Ziad Memish, the deputy minister for public health, told the media.

“The measures include monitoring the entrances through land, sea and air to evaluate the people entering and obtain samples if any symptoms are apparent,” he added.

In 2009 Saudi Arabia set up thermal cameras at its airports and increased the number of its medics as part of its measures to limit the spread of the H1N1 flu. It will not resort to using thermal cameras this year, Memish said.

“There is also continuous monitoring in the holy places in Mecca and Medina and Jeddah, with teams on the ground and hospitals to deal with them.”

The WHO ’s clinical guidance to 194 member states said health care workers should be alert to anyone with acute respiratory syndrome that may include fever (above 38°C) and cough, requiring hospitalisation, who would have been in the area where the virus was found or in contact with a suspected or confirmed case within the previous 10 days.

The virus, known as a corona-virus also related to the common cold, comes from the same family as Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which emerged in China in 2002.

Sars infected 8,000 people worldwide and killed 800 of them before eventually being brought under control.

The WHO said it was identifying a network of laboratories that could provide expertise on coronaviruses to countries.

“Though it is a very different virus from Sars, given the severity of the two confirmed cases so far, WHO is engaged in further characterising the novel coronavirus,” it said, referring to genetic sequencing.

Speaking to reporters, Hartl said: “This is not Sars, it will not become Sars, it is not Sars-like.”

It was not established whether the virus spread by human to human contact or just how it was transmitted, he said.

“We don’t know if all cases of infections are as severe as the two cases we have currently, or in fact whether there have been two million cases of this virus and only two severe cases.”