The WHO confirmed the first case in Thailand on Monday of a new virus from the same family as SARS that is behind a Chinese pneumonia outbreak. The WHO said it might soon host an emergency meeting on the spread of the new virus. The case marks the first outside of China, where 41 people with pneumonia-like symptoms have so far been diagnosed with the new virus in the central city of Wuhan, with one of the victims dying last Thursday.

The episode has caused alarm due to the specter of SARS, or Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which in 2002-2003 killed nearly 650 people in mainland China and Hong Kong. The WHO has confirmed that the outbreak in China has been caused by a previously unknown type of corona virus, part of a broad family ranging from the common cold to more serious illnesses like SARS.