RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia says one more person has died from a new respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to 55 the number of deaths in the kingdom at the centre of the outbreak.
The Health Ministry said Sunday that the 37-year-old man died in Riyadh. He was among 130 people who have been infected with the virus in Saudi Arabia since September last year.
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The new virus is related to SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed some 800 people in a global outbreak in 2003. It belongs to a family of viruses that most often causes the common cold.
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It emerged in the Middle East and can cause rapid kidney failure but doesn’t seem as infectious as SARS. It has been dubbed MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome.
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