Yes, I am aware of this.
THIS IS ONLY NEW BECAUSE IT'S CAUSING DEATHS.
Since this "new" type of SARS seems to be causing deaths (including health care workers/doctors) I do belive they should be very concerned. BTW, I think the respiratory illness you are refering to are of the influenza type. With which we have a rash of sickness/deaths every year. However those deaths are usually limited to the very young or elderly. From what I understand these people have developed a fairly rare type of pneumonia(sp?) that is resistant to normal treatments.