The Saudi health ministry said that it would send samples taken from animals possibly infected with a deadly SARS-like virus to the United States for testing in a bid to find the source of disease.
The ministry has "collected large samples from bats and other animals, including camels, sheep and cats," said Saudi Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish.
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So far, there have been 44 lab-confirmed cases worldwide of the virus, which until now has been known as the novel coronavirus, or nCoV-EMC, but was this week redubbed the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, or MERS.
Saudi Arabia counts by far the most cases, with 30 confirmed infections and 17 fatalities, while cases have also been detected in Jordan, Qatar, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Britain and France.
![Diagnosis Turns Complicated With SARS Virus Patent]( "Diagnosis Turns Complicated With SARS Virus Patent")
The news SARS-like virus, which claimed the lives of 22 people worldwide in less than a year, is now patented by foreign drug companies, thereby slowing down the diagnosis process.
Memish told diplomats gathered in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, that his country until now had not been able to send samples from animals besides bats to the United States.
"But now... we've got an approval to move these samples and they will be shipped for testing," he said.
The virus is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in east Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts and eventually killing some 800 people.
Scientists at the Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam have determined that the virus appears to infect the body via a docking point in lung cells, suggesting bats may be a natural reservoir for it.
Bats were also pinpointed as a likely natural reservoir for SARS in a 2005 study, and are known carriers of the deadly haemorrhagic fever Ebola.
Source: AFP
Diagnosis Turns Complicated With SARS Virus Patent
The news SARS-like virus, which claimed the lives of 22 people worldwide in less than a year, is now patented by foreign drug companies, thereby slowing down the diagnosis process.
Advertisement
Memish told diplomats gathered in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, that his country until now had not been able to send samples from animals besides bats to the United States.
"But now... we've got an approval to move these samples and they will be shipped for testing," he said.
The virus is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in east Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts and eventually killing some 800 people.
Scientists at the Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam have determined that the virus appears to infect the body via a docking point in lung cells, suggesting bats may be a natural reservoir for it.
Bats were also pinpointed as a likely natural reservoir for SARS in a 2005 study, and are known carriers of the deadly haemorrhagic fever Ebola.
Source: AFP
WHO Concerned Over Potential Spread of SARS-Like Virus Among Humans
The World Health Organization deputy chief has voiced deep concern over the potential spread of SARS-like virus that has so far killed 22 people in less than a year.
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 Saudi Traveller Dies in Tunisia due to SARS-like VirusThe health authorities revealed that a man travelling from Saudi Arabia who was infected with the SARS-like coronavirus has died in Tunisia. | Advertisement
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