5 isolated for fear of new viral illness

Five people have been isolated in a hospital in Denmark with symptoms of a new viral respiratory illness from the same family as the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) virus, the hospital said on Wednesday. “We have sent samples from the five for testing and hope to get the results this afternoon,” chief physician Svend Stenvang Petersen of Odense University Hospital said. “The five have a fever, coughing and influenza-like symptoms,” he added. Petersen said those admitted were a family of four where the father had been to Saudi Arabia, and an unrelated person who had been to Qatar. Two of those with symptoms were under the age of five. “We have put them in isolation because we don’t know how the virus spreads. So just as with bird and swine flu we have admitted them and isolated them so that we prevent the spread to others,” Dr Petersen said. “We do not have any medicine that works against this virus.” The five contacted their doctors following a Danish health authority advisory on Monday recommending that those who had travelled to Qatar and Saudi Arabia seek medical help if they experienced a fever, coughing, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. Meanwhile, the UN health agency said on Wednesday it knew of no more cases in the Gulf but was advising Saudi Arabia ahead of the upcoming Haj pilgrimage. “WHO is working closely with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as in previous years, to support the country’s health measures for all visitors participating in the Haj pilgrimage to the holy city of Makkah next month,” the World Health Organisation said in a statement. Meanwhile, pilgrims have already begun to arrive in the Saudi kingdom for the ritual that represents the world’s largest annual gathering. Last year, nearly three million Muslim pilgrims performed the Haj. Saudi health authorities have downplayed the chances of an outbreak of the mystery illness, adding that there were no changes on travel conditions for pilgrims. The new virus was recently identified by the British Health Protection Agency in a Qatari man transferred to London from Qatar. A Saudi national died earlier this year from a virtually identical virus, the WHO has said.