Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Sales-driven panic? New SARS-like virus spreading worldwide, boosting media coffers

RT
May 14, 2013

Saudi Arabia has confirmed four more cases of the new deadly coronavirus, contributing to global fears over the disease’s spread. Panic of this type has been boosting media ratings and has kept the drugs market bubbling over the last decade.

Four more confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (nCoV) see the total number of infected in Saudi Arabia reach 28 since the disease was first identified in 2012. Ten more people have been reported to have nCoV in other parts of the world – Jordan, Germany, Britain and France.

One of the freshly-confirmed sick Saudis had already been treated and released from hospital, while three others are still receiving medical assistance, according to the Saudi Press Agency, cited by Reuters.

This surge in the number of detected nCoV cases could result from the fact that overwhelming numbers of Saudis, even those with slightest fever symptoms, have rushed to hospitals for fears of the new virus, which has been deadliest in Saudi Arabia, claiming 15 lives. The disease’s global death toll is 18.

I did not send my son to school because of the fear of the spread of the virus,” said one Saudi woman interviewed by AFP.

The news of the four new Saudi nCoV cases, comes a day after the second case of coronavirus was detected in France, where the disease transmitted between hospital roommates. The one initially suffering from the coronavirus was infected while on a Middle East tour.

The WHO is ringing alarm bells, labeling the new coronavirus as “major challenge for all of the countries which have been affected as well as the rest of the world.

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