On
February 28, 2013 a thirty nine year old man was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia
and unfortunately died two days later. It
was later confirmed that the man had the novel corona virus which is a new SARS
like virus. The world health
organization has found fifteen cases of the novel corona virus including nine
fatalities. The World Health Organization (WHO) is trying to determine other
possible sources of exposure because the man that recently died didn't have any
known contact with any individual that had this unexplained virus. The Novel corona virus is in the same family
as SARS but it is still unknown SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome. Between the years of 2002 and
2003 SARS has made thousands of people sick and caused hundreds of deaths. The known symptoms of the novel corona virus include fever, coughing, and acute respiratory infection. Some deadly symptoms are kidney failure and pneumonia. Although the first cases have been discovered
in the Middle East, there have been some reports found in the United Kingdom. Even though the virus is difficult to obtain
it is still a very serious virus. One positive
aspect is that unlike the SARS outbreak there hasn't been a spread of the
infection between the infected patients and the caregivers. The Center for Disease Control has conducted
research with bats and it was revealed that the virus originated from animals
just like SARS. Because it can
eventually spread to the United States the CDC is working with the WHO to keep
the virus under control. This issue is
definitely a global issue because like the SARS outbreak, it can travel from
person to person over time. Because it
is a virus it is very possible for it to be spread to a large number of people
and that is one main characteristic of a global issue. The fact that this virus could potentially
spread to the United States makes this is a serious issue. Even though you can’t catch the virus from
someone directly across of a room, it can still infect anyone.
Antiqua Thurston 3/22/13 4:44
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