Oh, great, SARS is back

Is there another SARS outbreak on the horizon? The World Health Organization (WHO) recently identified a 49-year-old Qatari man now in the U.K. that has been infected with a virus in the same family as SARS. There have been two other cases of this new type of coronavirus and in both individuals the illness was fatal. However, health officials in Britain tried to tamp down any panic by announcing that those in contract with the infected persons have not exhibited any signs of the illness, which can cause severe pneumonia and kidney failure, and the WHO is not proposing any travel restrictions yet. A previous epidemic in 2002 caused the deaths of nearly 800 people.