Saudi King dismisses health minister over MERS cases

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud relieved Health Minister Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabiah of his post Monday, appointing him as advisor at the Royal Court, Saudi Press Agency reported. The decision came a day after Al-Rabia announced the rise in cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus infections to 244 since the first diagnosed case in 2012. He also announced 97 deaths due to the virus, Xinhua reported. (Read: MERS-CoV claims paramedic's life in UAE)

Although he assured the public that the death risk of the virus has reduced from 60 percent to 32 percent, there has been a state of panic among people. They prefer home remedies for simple illnesses out of fear that they will get the infection from hospitals, according to local newspapers. Adel bin Mohammed Faqih, the minister for labour, was given the extra responsibility of acting as health minister besides continuing as the minister of labour. (Read: MERS-CoV Should Indians be worried? (Expert Interview))

Saudi Arabia has been in close contact with five international medicine companies to develop a vaccine to protect people from the infection.

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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