U.S. health authorities are warning people about a new deadly virus and ask doctors to be watchful of patients who develop a severe respiratory infection within 10 days of their return from the Middle East.

Travelers who have visited the Middle East and develop a severe respiratory illness within 10 days of their return to the United States or another country, should watch out for a new deadly virus that has now infected 14 people and killed 8. 

The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention warned state and local health officials on Thursday of a new deadly virus from the same family of viruses as the common cold or the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS.)  See the report from the CDC here.

The CDC said most of the infections have happened in the Middle East (in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan) but three infections have also been detected in the U.K. 

In the UK, an infected man, 60, likely spread the virus to two family members. He had recently traveled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and got sick before returning to the UK. The UK's Health Protection Agency is continuing to investigate this, the CDC said in a report.

So far there have not been cases of this infection in the United States, according to the CDC.

Deadly Virus Symptoms and Transmission

The CDC informed that the illnesses were caused by a new coronavirus. The coronaviruses are a cause of the common cold.

According to analysis conducted by the CDC, the virus is not the same as SARS, but like SARS, it is similar to those found in bats. It can pass from person to person and develop symptoms such as severe acute respiratory illness with fever, couch and shortness of breath.  

Since 2004, there have not been any known cases of SARS reported anywhere in the world.  SARS was first reported in Asia in February 2003. The illness - a viral respiratory one caused by a coronavirus known as SARS-CoV - spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia before the SARS global outbreak of 2003 was contained.