SARS coronavirus – Credit CDC PHIL
# 6584
Although it actually went out to GPs yesterday (Sept 25th), the HPA has today published the letter they sent to NHS staff in England and Scotland on the coronavirus case being treated at a London hospital.
This letter provides us with perhaps the most detailed account to date on the events surrounding this case, including contact tracing.
Patient receiving treatment for novel coronavirus
26 September, 2012
The Department of Health has issued an alert to advise of a case of a novel coronavirus in a patient receiving treatment in a London hospital.
On 22 September 2012 a novel coronavirus was identified in lower respiratory tract specimens of a previously well, adult male Qatari national receiving treatment for a severe respiratory illness in London.
Please see the full alert from the Department of Health
Publication title: Novel coronavirus in a Qatari national receiving treatment for a severe respiratory illness in London
Document type: Letter
Publication description: This is to advise of a case of a novel coronavirus in a patient receiving treatment in a London hospital.
Publication author: Department of Health
Copyright holder: Crown
DH Gateway number: 18180
Date of publication: 26 September, 2012
Series number: CEM/CMO/2012/15
Some excerpts from the letter (slightly reformatted for readability) include:
NOVEL CORONAVIRUS IN A QATARI NATIONAL RECEIVING TREATMENT FOR A SEVERE RESPIRATORY ILLNESS IN LONDON
On 22 September 2012 a novel coronavirus was identified in lower respiratory tract specimens of a previously well, adult male Qatari national receiving treatment for a severe respiratory illness in London. The virus is virtually identical genetically to a novel coronavirus recently identified by Dutch researchers in a clinical sample from a Saudi Arabian national who was ill with pneumonia over three months ago. These are currently the only two known cases from whom this virus has been isolated.
Coronaviruses are causes of the common cold but also include the virus responsible for SARS. Strict respiratory isolation has been instituted around the current case and all personnel caring for the patient are wearing the appropriate personal protective clothing.
Respiratory symptoms in the current case started in early September after a reported visit to Saudi Arabia. The patient was admitted to hospital in Qatar and, as symptoms worsened, was transferred to London by air ambulance on 11 September where he is now being treated in intensive care.
Initial routine investigations revealed no cause for the illness but on 21 September, following a report in ProMED describing the identification of a novel human coronavirus, in a fatal respiratory illness in an adult Saudi Arabian national, specimens from the London patient were examined for coronavirus infection, and were found to be positive.Genetic characterisation of the virus revealed that it was virtually identical to the virus that caused the illness in the earlier case from Saudi Arabia.
In the light of the severity of the illness in the two confirmed cases and the novel nature of the virus, contacts of the cases, predominantly health care workers, are being contacted to ensure they are well and that further transmission has not occurred.
Follow up of the contacts of the current case is underway; no illness due to this infection has been confirmed so far in this group. Many of these contacts are already likely to be beyond the incubation period (currently assumed to be seven
days, based on what is known about other human coronavirus infections) when symptoms would have developed had they been infected. No other cases of confirmed or probable infection with this virus.
Information about these cases, and advice on the need to be vigilant for the possibility of further cases, has been developed for health care workers in the UK.
