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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : May 15, 2014 12:57 PM IST
The UN health agency warned countries today to bolster their guard against the MERS virus, which has killed 152 people in Saudi Arabia and is causing alarm as it spreads elsewhere. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said its emergency committee, which includes global medical and policy experts, had flagged mounting concerns about the potentially fatal Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS). 'They reached a consensus that the situation had increased in seriousness and that their concerns about the situation had also increased in terms of urgency,' Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's health security head, told reporters. The agency called on countries to improve infection prevention and control, collect more data on the virus and to be vigilant in preventing it from spreading to vulnerable countries, notably in Africa. A total of 571 MERS cases have been reported to the WHO, of which 171 have proved fatal. In many of them, victims caught the virus in hospital from other patients, although experts believe camels may also spread the disease.
The vast majority of infections have been reported in Saudi Arabia, and cases outside the Gulf nation have largely involved people who had travelled there. The Netherlands became the 13th country outside of Saudi Arabia today to report a case of MERS since December. Fukuda said that while Riyadh had done its best to stem the spread of MERS, a WHO team there still found 'sub-optimal' infection-control and overcrowding in hospitals. Cases have also risen outside hospitals, possibly because of the winter season or an increase in infections among animal carriers, Fukuda said. (Read: 12 fast facts about MERS-CoV)
Saudi Arabia's agriculture ministry has urged citizens to wear masks and gloves when handling camels, which are thought to be the source of the mysterious corona virus in the Gulf state. 'It's clear is that there is no convincing evidence right now for an increase in the transmissibility of this virus,' Fukuda said. 'If it is really associated with camels, and all of the infections are from camels to people and it does not become very transmissible among people, then I think that there's a reasonable chance that it would stay a regional infection, Fukuda added. There have been confirmed or suspected cases in Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Philippines, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Yemen since December. (Read: MERS virus exposure: Two US hospital workers fall ill)
What is MERS?
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 PTI
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