The World Health Organization is calling it "a threat to the entire world."
Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome -- or MERS -- has sickened about 40 people worldwide -- killing about half of them.
There have been no reported cases in North America, but BC's top doctor says health officials here are on alert.
Doctor Perry Kendall says, "and if they see people with acute respiratory distress, if they've travelled...particularly if they've travelled from parts of the world where we know that these diseases are happening, they have been very quick to place these people into respiratory isolation."
Kendall adds it's a proven system -- evidenced by the limited number of SARS cases in B-C during the outbreak ten years ago.
MERS was first detected in the Middle East and has since spread to Tunisia, France, Britain.