Plague Alert

[cronus]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 92750.html

Relative of 'Sars' patient now also in hospital with infection

A relative of a UK patient who recently contracted a potentially fatal Sars-like virus has also become infected with the disease, health experts said.

On Monday, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said one person who had recently travelled to the Middle East and Pakistan was being treated in an intensive care unit at a Manchester hospital after becoming infected with a new type of coronavirus.

Now officials have confirmed that a relative of the patient, who is also a UK resident, has become infected and is being treated in isolation at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham.

It is understood that the family member, who does not have any recent travel history, has an existing medical condition that might make them more susceptible to respiratory infections.

The latest case brings the number of confirmed cases across the world to 11, three of which were diagnosed in the UK, the HPA said.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said it was treating a patient who presented to staff on Saturday night and was being treated for novel coronavirus.

The hospital said the patient was initially given care in a single room on a ward, where stringent infection controls were put in place, and was allowed a limited number of visitors.

Their condition deteriorated on Sunday and they were moved to an isolation room in critical care, where they are now described as "stable".

A hospital spokeswoman said: "The patient did not come into direct contact with any other patient.

"All staff treating the patient complied with relevant infection control policies, wearing masks, gowns and gloves.

"The patient's condition is stable."

She added the room was being "cleaned daily with detergent and hypochlorite" and visitors were having to wear masks and gowns.

The trust said the patient was an existing out-patient "undergoing treatment for a long-term complex and unrelated health condition" which means they have a weakened immune system, making them susceptible to infections.

The hospital spokeswoman added six hospital staff who had come into close contact with the patient were being monitored but had not displayed any symptoms so far.

"The hospital is working closely with the Health Protection Agency," she said.

Last year British health officials identified another case of the novel coronavirus.

A 49-year-old Qatari man was treated at St Thomas' Hospital in London after becoming infected.

Health experts cautioned that the risk to the general population "remains very low".

(continued, I have total confidence in the exponential function and very much less in health experts)

[Audley Strange]

Everything is potentially fatal. SARS was a media frenzy, I think more people died choking on dismembered cocks than SARS the last time it hit.

[Audley Strange]

Everything is potentially fatal. SARS was a media frenzy, I think more people died choking on dismembered cocks than SARS the last time it hit.

[laklak]

We're doomed. But you already knew that.

[cronus]

We're doomed. But you already knew that.

Yes, it will mutate and become pretty bad. I've seen the movie here.

[JimC]

Yersina pestis it is not...

[Jason]

I was working at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto at the time of the SARS crisis.. what an absurd ado about nothing.

[cronus]

Y'all still alive!

[cronus]

http://www.onmedica.com/newsarticle.asp ... 399911f527