http://www.caribbean360.com/thumbnail.php?file=images/Caribbean/MERS_CoV_virus_407518030.jpg&size=article_medium...ENEVA, Switzerland, Wednesday June 26, 2013 – With
the deadly new Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus continuing
its slow but steady spread, concerns are being expressed about next
month's Ramadan, when millions of Muslim pilgrims from all over the
world will be converging on Saudi Arabia, the site of what appears to be
an ongoing outbreak of the disease.
The death of a Saudi man from the virus on Monday brought the
kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like infection to 34, according to
the ministry of health.
Other new cases have also been recorded, especially in Eastern
Province where most of the infections have occurred, the ministry added
on its website, noting that there have been 66 cases of infection from
MERS in the kingdom since the disease surfaced.
One week previously, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that 64
laboratory-confirmed cases of the disease had been recorded worldwide,
including 38 deaths.
MERS is a member of the coronavirus family, which includes the
pathogen that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a disease
that sparked global panic 10 years ago after it jumped to humans from
animals in Asia and killed about 800 people.
Like SARS, MERS appears to cause a lung infection, with patients
suffering from fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. But it
differs in that it also causes rapid kidney failure and appears far more
lethal than SARS.
Compared to SARS' eight percent death rate, the fatality rate for
MERS is about 65 percent, though experts concede that they could be
missing mild cases that might skew the figures.
While most of the cases have been concentrated in Saudi Arabia, the
MERS virus has also spread to neighbouring Jordan, Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), and cases have also been found in France, Germany,
Italy, Tunisia and Britain.
An international team of doctors who investigated nearly two dozen
cases in eastern Saudi Arabia found the new coronavirus has some
striking similarities to SARS.
Unlike SARS, however, scientists remain baffled as to the source of MERS.
While SARS was traced to bats before jumping to humans via civet
cats, the source of the MERS virus remains a mystery. It is most closely
related to a bat virus though some experts suspect people may be
getting sick from animals like goats or camels.
Another hypothesis is that infected bats may be contaminating foods like dates, commonly harvested and eaten in Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, doctors around the world have struggled to treat patients infected with the new virus.
"We need more information from other countries to find out what the
best treatment is," said Dr Clemens Wendtner, who treated a MERS patient
who later died in Germany. "Our patient got everything possible and it
still didn't help him."
Other experts are concerned about the worrying signs surrounding MERS.
"As long as it is around, it has every opportunity at the genetic
roulette table to turn into something more dangerous," said Michael
Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota.
WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan has previously called MERS the
single biggest public health threat and acknowledged officials were
"empty-handed" regarding prevention measures.
"We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the
magnitude of its potential threat," she said last month in Geneva. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)
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