Scientists race to understand deadly new virus

摘要

A deadly new virus has scientists scrambling to learn more about it and figure out whether it will become a pandemic or remain a limited threat. The virus has sickened 13 people and killed seven of them in the Middle East and England since last April. All but one of those infected were hospitalized with severe pneumonia, and several also developed kidney failure. "We have a new and virulent virus," Gwen Stephens, of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health in Riyadh, told members of the American Society of Microbiology on February 27 during the annual Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting. "We can only guess at its risks."