On Monday Feb. 23 the United Nations stated that Saudi Arabia hasn’t done enough to control the MERS crisis. The organization considers the kingdom needs to improve the way it controls the deadly MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak which only this month infected 50 people.
There are still some missing pieces to the MERS puzzle such as how people get infected or the way to stop the infection from traveling to other hosts. There is still no new information regarding how the virus travels from animal to humans.
MERS was first recognized in 2012. Since then the virus was confirmed in 1,026 cases out of which 376 have lost the battle. More than 85 % of the deaths occurred in patients in Saudi Arabia.
In the last weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported an increase in new MERS cases, with people getting ill after visiting health care settings in Riyadh and Damman City.
WHO considers that “the fact that infections are still occurring in some health care settings but not in others indicates that current infection control measures are effective but not implemented.”
According to several studies, humans can get infected after coming into contact with camels. WHO recommends that people belonging to high-risk groups (so suffering from certain chronic conditions like diabetes, lung complications and immune system disorders) avoid contact with camels. There are, however, no explanations as to how the infection is triggered or how it spreads.
Among MERS signs there are: fever, diarrhea and breading difficulties. MERS is a dangerous illness as it can lead to pneumonia and death. An interesting aspect is the lack of evidence regarding human to human interaction.
MERS is a coronavirus that can infect both people and animals, causing mild to moderate respiratory illness. In 2002, there was a similar coronavirus outbreak which killed 774 people and infected more than 8,000 worldwide.
Other nearby countries like Lebanon, Iran and Qatar have also confirmed MERS cases. Travel-associated MERS cases were identified in France, the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Saudi Arabian health minister Ahmed Bin Aqeel Al-Khateeb said there have been various initiatives with the purpose of controlling the infection. He added that he is waiting for feedback and suggestions from the WHO experts visiting the country to analyze the situation.
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