The illness was first reported in Sept. 2012 and was characterized as a type of coronavirus that includes sickness like the common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
There have been 15 people infected with the novel coronavirus, nine of those cases resulting in death.
And the latest death related to the illness, known as nCoV for "novel coronavirus," occurred in a 39-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who started to display symptoms of the mysterious respiratory infection on Feb. 24. The man was hospitalized four days later and then died March 2nd, according to the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia who informed WHO of the occurrence.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out a statement last week warning physicians to be aware of new infections.
Beginning in April 2012, all of the infections related to this novel coronavirus have been reported in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and the United Kingdom.
And while no cases have been reported so far in the U.S., the CDC is still advising all health care providers to be on the lookout for the illness and to notify the agency is a patient comes in with a respiratory illness within 10 days of traveling to areas surrounding the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
"WHO encourages all Member States to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns," the public health agency said in a statement.
"WHO is currently working with international experts and countries where cases have been reported to assess the situation and review recommendations for surveillance and monitoring."