Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

The virus has killed 11 of 17 infected patients to date

Researchers find two existing drugs can halt growth of cells in the lab

The bug is not to be confused with the new bird flu strain in China

Scientists may have found a treatment for a deadly new coronavirus — which causes severe, acute respiratory symptoms — first diagnosed in a patient from Qatar in September.

The treatment, a combination of two already-approved antiviral drugs, has been tested so far only in cells in lab dishes, according to the study in Scientific Reports.

But authors say they're encouraged to have any data to offer doctors. The SARS-like virus has been diagnosed in 17 people and has killed 11 by causing severe pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure.

Scientists found that a combination of the antiviral drugs ribavirin and interferon-alpha 2b can stop the virus from reproducing in lab-grown cells, says lead author Darryl Falzarano of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease's lab in Hamilton, Mont.

That's particularly encouraging, because these drugs, now used to treat hepatitis C, are widely available, says Anthony Fauci, director of the infectious-disease institute, which financed the research.

"We don't have to start designing new drugs," a process that takes years, Fauci says. "The next time someone comes into an emergency room in Qatar or Saudi Arabia, you would have drugs that are readily available. And at least you would have some data."

Even though the treatment hasn't gone through definitive trials, Fauci says, "if I were a physician in a hospital and someone were dying, rather than do nothing, you can see if these work."

Arnold Monto, a professor at the University of Michigan, says he's relieved that the new coronavirus hasn't spread more widely. The first case was diagnosed in the United Kingdom, in a man who was from Qatar and had traveled to Saudi Arabia. Other cases also have stemmed from travel to Saudi Arabia.

Doctors know the coronavirus can spread from person to person. In January, a 60-year-old man who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan became ill with the coronavirus and infected two family members back in the U.K., according to the World Health Organization.

Doctors still have many questions about the coronavirus, says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the Univesity of Minnesota.

"What we know is very concerning, and what we don't know is scary," Osterholm says.

Yet the medical world seems more worried about the new kind of bird flu in China, called H7N9.

"Right now the public health community has all eyes on China, but there are many who are sleeping with one eye open on the Middle East," Osterholm says.

The rapid spread of H7N9, which has killed about 20% of patients, is more concerning than the novel coronavirus, Osterholm says.

Doctors have diagnosed 83 cases in just a few weeks. In comparison, doctors have diagnosed only 45 cases of H5N1 bird flu — which kills about half of patients — since it first appeared in 2003, Osterholm says.

The body count, and mortality rate, from H7N9 could rise, Osterholm says. That's because it can take a couple of weeks for it to kill patients.

Doctors never developed a standard treatment for SARS, which flared up in 2003 and then disappeared, Falzarano says. If SARS reappeared, "we'd be in almost the same situation."