News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – World Health Organization (WHO) officials and others at the World Health Assembly (WHA) complained today that restrictions on the use of virus samples are delaying the investigation of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), according to news service reports.

Saudi Arabian officials and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported three more novel coronavirus (nCoV) cases today in the same area of Saudi Arabia as seven cases reported yesterday, raising worries about possible person-to-person transmission.

(CIDRAP News) – A 39-year-old Saudi Arabian man died on Mar 2 of a novel coronavirus (NCoV) infection, marking the world's 15th case and 9th death from the mysterious virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – A European report has filled in some details about the two severe illnesses linked to a novel coronavirus, but most of the major questions, such as where it came from and how it spreads, remained unanswered today.

(CIDRAP News) – Reports of a novel coronavirus linked to two severe illnesses with Saudi Arabian connections put the public health world on alert yesterday and conjured up memories of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), a coronavirus infection that killed close to 800 people in 2002 and 2003.