Family members have now contracted the disease.

Reports don’t tell us if he himself was an immigrant to the UK, but in light of all of the news lately about multidrug-resistant TB in immigrants crossing borders, here and here, I think I better set an alert for the topic of ‘immigrant health.’

Drudge has this story today from CBS :

ATLANTA (CBSMiami) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a new warning to state and local health officials about a virus that is related to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and appeared for the first time in September 2012.

The virus is a coronavirus, which is the same family of virus as the common cold and SARS. Asia dealt with a SARS outbreak in 2003. The new virus sprang up last year in the Middle East, but has since been seen in Great Britain.

The CDC said a worldwide total of 14 cases have been documented since April 2012 with eight of those cases leading to death. No cases have been reported in the United States thus far.

But, the CDC said the virus has clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. According to the CDC, people traveling to the Arabian Peninsula or neighboring countries would have the highest risk of possible transmission.

Of the three cases seen in Great Britain, one came from a 60-year-old man who had traveled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Maybe he got it at the Hajj!

Related health alert from the UK today, also via Drudge, drug resistant diseases could be catastrophic.