First UK victim of Sars-like virus dies at a hospital in Birmingham

First UK victim of Sars-like virus dies at a hospital in Birmingham | Mail Online
▻http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2280676/First-UK-victim-Sars-like-virus-dies-hospital-Birmingham.html

A man infected with a Sars-like illness has become the first person in Britain to die from the virus.

The 39-year-old, who died in the intensive care unit at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, caught the illness from his father, who had become infected while travelling in Pakistan and the Middle East.

So far there have only been four confirmed cases of the illness in Britain and 12 anywhere in the world, with six deaths.

The illness, known as novel #coronavirus, causes a cough, breathing difficulties and fever which can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure.

It is from the same virus family as Sars, which claimed 900 lives worldwide in 2002 and 2003.

But scientists say novel coronavirus is nowhere near as dangerous as it has difficulty spreading between humans.

The man who died on Sunday was suffering from a long-term condition which made him more susceptible.

Le nouveau coronavirus (#NCoV , grippe #chiroptère) provoque le premier décès au Royaume-Uni. Le patient était porteur d’une pathologie de longue durée qui avait fragilisé son système immunitaire.

Par ailleurs, les premières études sur ce nouveau coronavirus (identifié en septembre 2012) commencent à sortir ▻http://afludiary.blogspot.fr/2013/02/mbio-ncov-affinity-for-replication-in.html (synthèse, avec lien vers l’étude originale dans le billet). Le papier détaille la voie d’infection (voie aérienne) et indique des moyens de traitement possibles (interféron).