UAE identifies 4 new cases of SARS-like virus

A Saudi staff nurse crosses the street on her way to the King Fahad hospital in the city of Hofuf, 370 kms East of the Saudi capital Riyadh, on June 16, 2013. Four people have died from the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia, bringing the death toll from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom to 32, the health ministry said. The World Health Organisation announced that the global death toll from MERS had reached 33, with 28 of them in the kingdom. The virus is a member of the coronavirus family, which includes the pathogen that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). AFP FILE PHOTO

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Health authorities in the United Arab Emirates have identified four new cases of a respiratory virus related to SARS whose main concentration has been in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The new cases also could offer investigators fresh leads on the transmission of the virus, which has claimed more than 40 lives since September. Most of the deaths have been in Saudi Arabia.

The official news agency WAM quotes health authorities as saying a previously identified patient with the virus apparently passed it to at least four others. Friday’s statement added there were no plans to restrict travel or increase screenings.

The virus is related to SARS, which killed some 800 people in a global outbreak in 2003. It belongs to a family of viruses that most often cause the common cold.