A new SARS-like virus known as the MERS-CoV virus is spreading from its origins in the Middle East and continuing to take lives, and now, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports a 14-year old Saudi girl is the latest to have contracted the disease, CNN reported.
The Saudi health ministry told the WHO that the teen girl became sick on May 29, and is now in stable condition. The Middle East Respiratory coronavirus, or MERS, attacks the upper respiratory system much like a cold virus, but though it shares similar cold-like symptoms such as fever and cough, MERS can lead to more devastating illnesses such as pneumonia and kidney failure.
To date, the WHO knows of 54 cases worldwide of MERS, including 30 deaths. The new virus is in the same family as SARS, as it causes upper respiratory illnesses in addition to a variety of animal diseases, but the virus is distinct from SARS. So far, the virus has been detected in people Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Tunisia and the United Kingdom, according to the WHO. The virus has not yet been seen in the U.S.
"All of the European cases have had a direct or indirect connection to the Middle East," the WHO said in the May 17 statement. "However, in France and the United Kingdom, there has been limited local transmission among close contacts who had not been to the Middle East but had been in contact with a traveler recently returned from the Middle East."
Global health officials are scrambling to try and learn more about the new virus, since they don't know for sure how it spreads, and there's no particular treatment or vaccine yet.
Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said to CNN, "the novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or by manage all by itself. The novel coronavirus is a threat to the entire world."
