No need to panic over Sars-like virus say experts

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said a French man developed the illness after sharing a hospital room with a patient suffering from novel coronavirus (nCoV).

The infectious disease has killed at least 18 people globally, including two in the UK.

Health officials in the UK have been advised to be vigilant for severe unexplained respiratory illness in anyone who has recently travelled in the Middle East, as well as any unexplained clusters of such illness.

Professor Peter Openshaw, director of the centre for respiratory infection at Imperial College London, said: “We are right to be concerned about the reporting of transmission from person to person, but there is absolutely no reason to panic.

“Human-to-human transmission has now been documented but this is not a great surprise and the virus seems relatively hard to transmit.

“The ‘super-spreading’ events, in which one person infects several dozen people at a time (as was seen with Sars coronavirus), do not seem to be happening with this coronavirus.”

Dr Ben Neuman, expert on coronavirus at the University of Reading, said: “This virus can cause a life-threatening pneumonia similar to Sars, but the spread of the virus is still quite slow in comparison.

“So far, the virus has only spread between people in unusual circumstances, such as living in the same house, or among people who were already hospitalised for other reasons.

“The outlook remains cautious, but infections are fortunately still rare.”

Infected patients have presented with serious respiratory illness with fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Coronaviruses cause most common colds but can also cause Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome). In 2003, hundreds of people died after a Sars outbreak in Asia.

In its update, the WHO said that from September 2012 to date, it had been informed of a global total of 34 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with nCoV, with 18 deaths. It called for continued surveillance but said there was no need for screening or travel restrictions.