The World Health Organization says a new virus that killed 18 people in Europe and the Middle East could be transmitted between humans in close contact.

WHO Assistant Secretary-General Keiji Fukuda is visiting Saudi Arabia where the majority of cases of the coronavirus is found. He noted the clusters of illnesses “increasingly supports the hypothesis” of close contact human transmission.

However, he said so far "there is no evidence that this virus has the capacity to sustain generalized transmission in communities."

One public health expert explained close contact refers to staying with an infected person in a small and closed space for a considerable time.

The new coronavirus is similar to the SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome which originated in Asia and killed 775 people in 2003.