Coronavirus: Sars, Mers and plain old flu far more deadly than Wuhan outbreak

Medics said the new threat should be kept in perspective

Visitors wear protective face masks at the Arab Health conference at Dubai World Trade Centre. Pawan Singh / The National

Mohammed Al Ghamdi from Saudi Diagnostics wears a face mask at the Arab Health conference at Dubai World Trade Centre in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The National

Doctors say the masks offer limited protection and the public are at little risk. Pawan Singh / The National

Tourists wear face masks on Sunset Beach near the Burj Al Arab hotel on Wednesday, hours after the country declared its first case. Antonie Robertson / The National

Masks were selling out in stores in Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Doctors say they offer limited protection and urged the public not to panic over a single reported case. Antonie Robertson / The National

The masks were popular with Chinese tourists even before the Wuhan outbreak and are commonly seen being worn in airports. Antonie Robertson / The National

A tour group, some of whom covered their faces, take photos next to the Burj Al Arab in Dubai on Wednesday. Antonie Robertson / The National

A medical worker checks the body temperature of a driver at a checkpoint outside the city of Yueyang, Hunan province, near the border with Hubei province, which is in lockdown. Reuters

A woman wearing a face mask passes a health notice warning passengers arriving at London's Heathrow Airport about the virus. AFP

Tokyo quarantine officers wearing full protective gear approach a charted flight, believed to be carrying Japanese citizens repatriated from Wuhan, at Haneda airport in Tokyo. EPA

A Kenyan health worker screens a passenger wearing face mask after they arrived from China, at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. EPA

Medical personnel take temperature tests of passengers on board a plane at the airport in Zhoushan City, Zhejiang province, China. EPA

Passengers are seen on a thermal screen upon their arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport after Nepal confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country. Reuters

An airport official checks the temperature of a passenger upon his arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar. AFP

An airport official checks the temperature of a passenger upon his arrival at the Bacha Khan International Airport in Peshawar. AFP

Disinfection workers wearing masks spray antiseptic solution at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea. Getty Images

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People could be forgiven for thinking coronavirus is a completely new threat, following an explosion in media coverage after the outbreak in China.

But in truth, coronaviruses were already common. The chances are, you’ve even caught one at some point.

Four coronaviruses that commonly infect people usually lead to mild respiratory infections, such as the common cold.

Another type was responsible for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2002 and 2003.

Coronavirus is also responsible for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers), or camel flu, which emerged in Saudi Arabia around eight years ago.

This latest strain of coronavirus, so far called 2019-nCoV, or the Wuhan virus, has spread from China to 16 other countries, including the UAE.

How common are the other coronaviruses?

The common cold – caused by four forms of the virus – are a fact of life. So much so that most people will not seek medical treatment. It means it is impossible to find reliable figures on how many cases there are – but it is not unusual for children to catch up to 10 a year while adults can expect to catch between two and four every 12 months.

In late 2003, the emergence of the Sars virus caused a major panic – and by the following July there had been more than 8,000 cases and it killed nearly 800.

But according to the World Health Organisation, there hasn’t been a case reported since 2004. There were no Sars cases ever reported in the UAE and there was no major outbreak in the Middle East, with just one case being found in Kuwait. The patient survived.

Mers, meanwhile, has affected UAE residents. Between September 2012 and November last year, the World Health Organisation has been notified of 2,494 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection.

While the vast majority of cases have been in Saudi Arabia, the UAE is the next most commonly-affected country, with a major spike coming in 2014. Cases have reduced drastically since then.

Last October, a 44-year-old male farmer in Al Ain was confirmed to have had Mers, the first case reported from UAE since May 2018.

Between 2012 and October last year, the UAE reported 88 cases of Mers infection and 12 associated deaths.

This compares with the four people from Wuhan, who travelled to the UAE for a holiday and were from the same family, who have been found to have the latest strain of coronavirus.

What about other conditions?

Experts and health officials have been quick to stress that the threat from the Wuhan strain of coronavirus should be kept in perspective. For example influenza, which is not a coronavirus, poses a greater risk to public health.

While the number of deaths that influenza causes can change significantly from year to year, in the winter two years ago a particularly severe outbreak killed an estimated 80,000 people in the United States alone.

Statistics are not available on the number of cases in the UAE, but the 2018 strain of the respiratory infection proved particularly lethal in Dubai, with schoolgirl Alia Niyaz Ali dying from complications associated with the virus.