Last June, a sixty-year-old man in Saudi Arabia fell ill with
pneumonia. His disease, it turned out, was caused by a virus no
one had seen before. It was a coronavirus–in other words, it
belonged to a lineage of viruses that includes ones that cause
colds as well as ones that cause SARS. But this new virus was
genetically distinct enough to be considered a species in its
own right. Scientists now refer to it by the dreary,
unpronounceable abbreviation HCoV-EMC. Eleven days after being
admitted to a Jedda hospital, the man infected with this new
virus died. A single death from a new virus is hardly unheard
of. But over the past few months, virus-watchers have gotten
increasingly anxious about HCoV-EMC. So far, 15 people have been
diagnosed with the virus, and nine have died. While some victims
have turned up as far away as England, everyone with HCoV-EMC
has had some connection to the Arabian Peninsula. Some victims
belonged to the same family, suggesting that the virus can
spread from one person to the next.