# 6701
If you’ll forgive a slight reworking of a famous line from Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger:
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times, it's an emerging infectious disease.”
At least that’s what sprang to mind last Sunday with the announcement from the Saudi Ministry of Health that a third coronavirus case from the Middle East had been indentified, and was responding to treatment (see Saudi Arabia MOH Announces Third Coronavirus Case.
The ECDC, which issued a Risk Assessment last September after the second case was announced, has updated their assessment today.
Epidemiological update: additional case of novel coronavirus
06 Nov 2012
ECDC
On 4 November, the Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, posted a report on ProMed about a confirmed case of pneumonia caused by the novel coronavirus which has been temporarily named nCoV-EMC. The patient, who was diagnosed and treated in Riyadh, is recovering. He had not travelled outside of Riyadh but, like the two previously documented cases, had visited a farm prior to onset of symptoms. There are no details on the kind of farm he visited or details of specific animal contact. The coronavirus strain isolated from the current case has not yet been sequenced.
On 24 September 2012, ECDC published a Rapid Risk Assessment on Severe respiratory disease associated with a novel coronavirus. The novel coronavirus caused two confirmed severe cases, one of whom died. The reservoir and route of transmission of this virus has not been confirmed but there was an epidemiological link to exposure on the Arabian peninsula. There is no evidence of person-to-person transmission. An analysis of the relation of the hCoV-EMC showed that it was most closely related to bat coronaviruses.
The current information on this third case does not change the conclusions in the ECDC rapid risk assessment that the current risk is low, but offers an important opportunity to explore possible exposure and routes of transmission, should the strain be shown to be identical with the two isolates of the hCoV-EMC. ECDC continues to follow developments closely.
Read more on ECDC website:
The lack of any sign of human-to-human transmission is extremely encouraging, but as this assessment points out, there is a great deal we do not yet know about this virus.
Most importantly its primary (or even intermediate) host species have not been identified (although it is similar to viruses found in Bats in Hong Kong), nor has the mode of transmission been determined.
For now, this coronavirus remains an epidemiological mystery. One that researchers around the world are more than a little anxious to solve.
Related Post:
- ECDC: Updated Novel Coronavirus Risk Assessment
- ECDC Updates Their Coronavirus Risk Assessment
- ECDC: Coronavirus `does not signal the start of a new SARS outbreak’
- ECDC Risk Assessment On DR Congo Ebola Outbreak
- H3N2v: CDC Update & ECDC Risk Assessment
- Pandemic Uncertainties
- ECDC: Risk Assessment On Edinburgh Legionella Outbreak
- 5.8 Mag. Quake Rocks Northern Italy
- UK: Civil Threat Risk Assessment
- ECDC: Annual Risk Assessment On Seasonal Flu 2011-2012
- ECDC Risk Assessment On H5N1 Transmissibility Studies
- UN Agency Warns On Global Seismic Risks
- ECDC: Rapid Risk Assessment On China’s H5N1 Fatality
- ECDC: Updated Risk Assessment On trH3N2 Virus
- ECDC Risk Assessment On trH3N2 Cases In North America
- IDDR: Stepping Up For Disaster Risk Reduction
- UNDP: Supercities At Seismic Risk
- A Look At Europe’s Seismic Risks
- ECDC: Risk Assessment For Remainder Of Flu Season
- Lancet: Low Flu Vaccine Effectiveness
- ECDC Influenza Virus Characterization
- ECDC: Updated Novel Coronavirus Risk Assessment
- ECDC Updates Their Coronavirus Risk Assessment
- ECDC Risk Assessment: Dengue In Madeira
- WHO Europe: Revising Pandemic Preparedness Plans
- ECDC: Multidrug Resistant Infections Increasing In Europe
- Global Flu Surveillance Updates
- ECDC: Influenza Virus Characterization – Sept 2012
- EID Journal: Challenges To Defining TDR-TB
- ECDC: Coronavirus `does not signal the start of a new SARS outbreak’
- ECDC Report: Narcolepsy In Association With Pandemic Flu Vaccination
- ECDC Risk Assessment On DR Congo Ebola Outbreak
- H3N2v: CDC Update & ECDC Risk Assessment
- ECDC: Climatic Suitability For Dengue Transmission in Europe
- Updating The Cambodian `Mystery’ Illness
- ECDC: Risk Assessment On Edinburgh Legionella Outbreak
- ECDC Response Plan To Multi-Drug Resistant Gonorrhea
- ECDC: Communicable Disease Threats -Week 23
- How The ECDC Will Spend Your Summer Vacation
- ECDC: Mapping Disease Vectors
- ECDC: Status & Importance Of Invasive Mosquito Breeds In Europe
- WHO-ECDC: Joint Report On Tuberculosis In Europe
- ECDC: Annual Risk Assessment On Seasonal Flu 2011-2012
- The Many Flavors Of ILI
- WHO Coronavirus Update
- mBio: Coronavirus Has An Affinity For Multiple Hosts
- ECDC: Updated Novel Coronavirus Risk Assessment
- WHO Coronavirus Updates
- WHO: Background & Summary Of Coronavirus Cases
- WHO Coronavirus Update: 9 Confirmed Cases
- WHO Corrects Coronavirus Statement
- Referral: CIDRAP News Summarizes The Coronavirus Story
- Branswell On Expanded Surveillance For The Coronavirus
- ECDC Updates Their Coronavirus Risk Assessment
- Hong Kong’s Coronavirus Response
- Novel Coronavirus: More Questions Than Answers
- WHO Announces Additional Coronavirus Cases
- Saudi Arabian MOH Reports New Coronavirus Case
- Saudi Arabia MOH Announces Third Coronavirus Case
- Referral: McKenna On The NEJM Coronavirus Report
- Hong Kong Boy Tests Negative For Coronavirus
- Hong Kong Investigating Possible Coronavirus Case
- Coronavirus `Closely Related’ To HK Bat Strains
- Coronavirus: WHO Update & Genome Sequence
- McKenna: Remembering SARS & The New Coronavirus
- Hospital: Danish Patients Negative For Coronavirus
- HPA Letter To NHS Staff On Coronavirus
Widget by [ Iptek-4u ]