A new coronavirus found in the Middle East is one of a family of viruses named after the corona-like appearance of their surface spikes.
ELIZABETH R. FISCHER, ROCKY MOUNTAIN LABS/NIAID/NIH
The World Health Organization (WHO) urged that surveillance for the virus, called human betacoronavirus 2c EMC/2012, should be extended to all countries worldwide, with a special focus on all clusters of severe pneumonia, particularly in health workers. Epidemiologists say that the nebulous threat requires close monitoring, by investigating and controlling any new clusters of human cases that could signal that the virus has adapted to spread between people more easily.
The coronavirus, first reported on 20 September, causes severe pneumonia and often kidney failure. In the nine cases confirmed so far, it has had a death rate of more than 50%. “It’s an extremely serious disease; it’s very much in the category of H5N1 [avian influenza],” says David Heymann, chairman of the UK Health Protection Agency and former head of the communicable-diseases programme at the WHO during the 2003 SARS epidemic, caused by a different coronavirus.
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