WHO: 2 more cases of new virus in Jordan

LONDON — International health officials have confirmed two more fatal cases of a mysterious respiratory virus in the Middle East.

The virus has so far sickened nine people and killed five of them. The virus is related to SARS, which killed some 800 people in a global epidemic in 2003.

The two cases date back to April and are part of a cluster of a dozen people who fell sick in Zarqa, Jordan. Officials are investigating whether the 10 other people sick in Zarqa also were infected and how it might have spread. Other cases of the virus have been spotted in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

WHO doesn’t know exactly how the virus spreads but said it couldn’t exclude the possibility it was being transmitted from person to person.

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Tags: epidemic , Health Science , Middle East , respiratory virus , SARS , Science & Health , WHO , World Health Organization