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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : April 17, 2014 12:54 PM IST
The Saudi Arabian government has assured citizens that measures were in place to tackle the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus that has so far claimed 69 lives in the country. After a cabinet meeting Monday, Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja said: 'The Cabinet was reassured about the health situation in general and in Jeddah after the minister's (health minister) inspection of several public hospitals in the city.'
Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, after visiting several hospitals, assured the cabinet meeting that the situation was under control. The statement comes in the wake of deaths of two expatriates and a male Saudi nurse till Monday in a hospital in Jeddah of Makkah Province, taking the overall cases of MERS coronavirus since September 2012 in Saudi Arabia to 194. The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Crown Prince Salman.
The minister urged the media to refrain from publishing any news concerning the virus and other epidemic diseases except those approved by the government, the report said. Earlier Saturday, Al-Rabeeah inspected several public hospitals in Jeddah to take stock of the measures being undertaken to control the disease that had caused alarm among Saudis and the expatriate population. There have been several reports of people refusing to go to hospitals, and parents keeping their children at home, the report stated. (Read: Camels responsible for MERS?)
Several parents had also disallowed their children from attending schools fearing infection. The education ministry, meanwhile, refuted reports about closure of schools 'as there is no MERS coronavirus among students', the report stated. The MERS virus emerged in the Middle East in 2012 and so far cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, UAE, Oman, Tunisia and parts of Europe. WHO in its update last week, confirmed a total of 212 cases of infection, including 88 deaths, since 2012. (Read: MERS-CoV Should Indians be worried? (Expert Interview))
The report warned that: 'People at high risk of severe disease due to MERS-coronavirus should avoid close contact with animals when visiting farms or barn areas where the virus is known to be potentially circulating.' 'For the general public, when visiting a farm or a barn, general hygiene measures, such as regular hand washing before and after touching animals, avoiding contact with sick animals, and following food hygiene practices, should be adhered to.' (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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