CEJ # 4

Health officials in the UK believe they have the strongest evidence yet that a new respiratory illness similar to the deadly Sars virus can spread from person to person.
Cases of the infection may come from contact with animals. However, if the virus can spread between people it poses a much more serious threat.
One man in the UK is thought to have caught the infection from his father.
However, officials say the threat to the whole population remains very low.
There have been 11 confirmed cases of the infection around the world. It causes pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure - five patients have died.
Confirmed novel coronavirus infection in a person without travel history to the Middle East suggests that person-to-person transmission has occurred, and that it occurred in the UK.” Prof John Watson Health Protection Agency

This is the third case identified in the UK. The first was a patient flown in from Qatar for treatment. The second was linked to travel to the Middle East and Pakistan.

The virus is then thought to have spread from the second patient to a close relative. There have been suggestions of person to person transmission in earlier cases in the Middle East, but this was not confirmed.