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Commentary
Saudi Arabia
Import of Beta
Coronavirus?
Recombinomics
Commentary 20:15
February 27, 2013
The woman had recently returned from abroad with symptoms of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the official said.
The above comments describe the most recently confirmed novel betacornavirus case (61F). Previously, confirmed cases include those who traveled to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah. After developing symptoms, both cases returned home to Qatar or England. The Qatari case (49M) became asymptomatic for two weeks after returning home, but symptoms returned and his condition deteriorated. He flew to England via air ambulance, was confirmed, and has been hospitalized in England for the past 5 months.
The second case (60M) returned to England via commercial airline. He was also confirmed in England and also remains hospitalized. However, at least two family members developed symptoms and two were confirmed. Since neither had recent travel outside of England, human to human transmission was likely. This would represent the export of the virus from Saudi Arabia to the UK. In addition, five prior confirmed cases were from Saudi Arabia
However, the above description of the latest case suggests the novel coronavirus was recently imported into Saudi Arabia, since the fatal case developed symptoms abroad, prior to confirmation in Riyadh, suggesting that the virus is also spreading outside of Saudi Arabia.
A recent media report cited two additional cases under investigation, but details were not released. More information on the travel history for the above case, and detail on the two cases under investigation, would be useful.
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