New SARS-like virus is a 'threat to the entire world'

[JaneyVee]

(CNN) -- A new SARS-like virus recently found in humans is "a threat to the entire world," according to the director-general of the United Nations' World Health Organization.

The so-called novel coronavirus "is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself," Margaret Chan said Monday in her closing remarks at the 66th World Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

The world needs to pull together its resources to properly tackle the virus which, Chan said, is her "greatest concern" at present.

"We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat," she said, and more information is needed "quickly" and "urgently."

The virus had infected 44 people worldwide as of last week, most of them in the Middle East, according to the World Health Organization's most recent update Thursday. Half of them have died.

The rest: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/28/health/france-coronavirus-death/index.html?c=homepage-t
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A 23rd person has died from it putting the deaths past the halfway mark. It was a man from France who had recently visited the Middle East.

[yourout]

1. Yikes......now that is something to be affraid of.

[defacto7]

3. The idea of such a thing is scary

But it could also mutate out of existence in a relatively short period of time. We just don't know. Is it something really to be scared of? That's up to you if you choose to do so. I see no reason yet. Be aware, yes. But worrying about something that is not an epidemic yet is not the best use of energy. Wait and see what happens. It may never become anything, and that is a greater possibility than becoming an epidemic.

[Marrah_G]

2. That is a huge death rate

Now the question is how long it takes for people to show symptoms. That will be the big factor in how much it spreads.

[kestrel91316]

4. 50% mortality (among KNOWN cases) is frightening.

As long as it is not spread from person to person, we are safe.

If it spreads easily from person to person, we are NOT.

ETA: "....We do not know how the virus spreads....."

ETA: It's behaving like a cold virus, affecting the respiratory tract and likely spreading from coughing, like the common cold, a very close relative.

OK, I AM OFFICIALLY WORRIED.

[Auggie]

5. No treatment for this either

[mick063]

6. Meanwhile

Livestock are being pumped full of antibiotics.


ALEC will create an extinction event in the name of profit.

[JesterCS]

7. I think...

this is why I have social anxiety, and hate crowds. lol

[Fearless]

8. That's a very small population

sample not controlled for previous health and well being, age, or any other outside factor. Caution is appropriate, but thoughts of it as a global pandemic are premature.

[ButterflyBlood]

9. Only 44 people infected?

Can't be that infectious then.

And if only 21 are still alive, can't they all just be quarantined until they are safe? Seems like this thing was caught early before it would become a major threat.