“British officials say a mysterious virus related to SARS may have spread between humans, as they confirmed the 11th case worldwide of the new coronavirus in a patient who they say probably caught it from a family member,” the Associated Press reports (2/13). “The new virus, which the WHO refers to as novel coronavirus or NCoV, shares some of the symptoms of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome — a coronavirus which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide,” Reuters writes, adding, “The [WHO] said the latest infection was ‘a sporadic case’ and did not alter the WHO’s risk assessment” (Kelland, 2/11). “The new virus was first identified last year in the Middle East and the 10 people who have previously been infected had all traveled there,” the AP writes. However, “[a]ccording to Britain’s Health Protection Agency, the latest patient is a U.K. resident with no recent travel to the Middle East but who had close personal contact with an earlier case,” the news agency notes (2/13).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

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