A doctor checks equipment at a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) screening room at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, 05 April 2003. A 64-year-old man who died six days ago was probably Malaysia's first victim of the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the health ministry said 05 April 2003.
AHMAD YUSNI/AFP/GettyImages
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry has
confirmed that a second person in the kingdom has contracted a new
respiratory virus related to SARS, bringing to three the number of those
sickened by it in the Gulf region in recent weeks.
The Ministry
in a statement Monday said the unidentified patient was hospitalized
with "pneumonia caused by the new virus known as novel Coronavirus." It
said the patient has since recovered from his pneumonia, adding that he
had not traveled outside Riyadh. It did not say when, where, or how the
person contracted the virus.
The germ is a coronavirus, from a
family of viruses that cause the common cold, as well as SARS - the
severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed some 800 people, mostly in
Asia, in a 2003 epidemic.
Associated Press