With the identification of a family cluster of novel coronavirus (NCoV) infections in the UK and a single new case in Saudi Arabia in February 2013, the number of confirmed NCoV infections has risen to 13, seven of which were fatal (
WHO
, 21 Feb 2013). The UK cluster appears to have originated from a man who recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where NCoV was first isolated in September 2012. After two of the man's family members also fell ill, John Watson, the head of the UK's Health Protection Agency, said that such a cluster “suggests that person-to-person transmission occurred” but gave no reason for increased alarm, as indicated by an unchanged risk assessment from the WHO (
Reuters
, 13 Feb 2013).
The ability of NCoV to spread between humans was previously unclear, although an 11-person cluster of pneumonia in a Jordanian hospital in April 2012 hinted that it was possible. NCoV was confirmed in the two fatal cases, and the nine non-fatal cases were probable, but unconfirmed, NCoV infections. WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said, “Even if the cases in Jordan were human-to-human spread — and we don't know that — it wasn't sustained.” (
NPR
, 30 Nov 2012.)
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