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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : May 9, 2014 7:20 PM IST
The Kerala health department is on high alert after increasing number of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) cases were reported in Saudi Arabia. MERS is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus called MERS-CoV and was first reported in Saudi Arabia September 2012.
According to media reports, till date, 126 people have died due to the disease and 18 new cases have been recorded. Twenty-five percent of more than three million Keralites who work abroad are in Saudi Arabia. Health and Family Welfare Department Secretary K. Ellangovan told that his field staff are on the job and not a single case of MERS has been reported in the state. (Read: MERS-CoV Should Indians be worried? (Expert Interview))
'...we have not started to screen passengers coming from Saudi Arabia at the three airports in the state as no case has been reported. We are seized of the issue and would act at the appropriate time,' said Ellangovan. State Minister for Diaspora K.C. Joseph told IANS that they are aware of the situation and are closely monitoring it. Health experts say that there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments for MERS currently.
The illness is believed to have first occured in camels. (Read: MERS-CoV claims paramedic's life in UAE)
What exactly is the MERS-CoV?
MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome which is a viral illness that was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012.It is caused by a respiratory virus, a previously unseen variant of the coronavirus. It's very similar to a strain of coronavirus found in bats and not the same as the SARS virus that circulated in 2003.
Why we need to be worried
The problem with viruses like this is multi-fold. Vaccines and medicines are usually devised after years of planning and studying a particular pathogen so that we can contain them. Unlike seasonal influenza, healthcare professionals have no idea how to deal with unknown ailments, the way it spreads and how to contain it. The last time the world faced a situation like this was a decade ago when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) broke out near Hong Kong where a local farmer died from the disease. In the next eight months, the disease affected over eight thousand people and caused 775 deaths in 37 different countries. The more worrying fact was that it had at its peak a fatality rate of 9.6% (almost one out of every ten people affected died) and despite the fact that the disease disappeared after early 2003, it's not believed to have been eradicated and the virus can still be lurking in animals. (Read: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) should you worry?)
With inputs from IANS
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