WHO calls for stepping up alert against Mers

AFP

Geneva

The UN health agency yesterday warned countries 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 said its emergency committee, which includes global medical and policy experts, had flagged mounting concerns about the potentially fatal Middle East Respiratory Virus.

“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 kingdom have largely involved people who had travelled there. 

Yesterday the Netherlands became the 13th country outside of Saudi Arabia 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.

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 coronavirus in the country.

The risk of Mers gaining the ability to spread further and faster has raised the spectre of a global crisis.

But the WHO has so far stopped short of declaring an international health emergency, which would have far-reaching implications like travel and trade restrictions on affected countries.

“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.”

Mers is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the Sars virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, 9% of whom died. It caused huge economic chaos.

Like Sars, it appears to cause a lung infection, with patients suffering coughing, breathing difficulties and a temperature. 

But Mers differs in that it can also cause rapid kidney failure.

It has proven particularly lethal among older people and those with existing health problems.  Page 33

Saudi announces five new deaths

Saudi Arabia announced yesterday five new deaths from Mers, raising the death toll in the country worst-hit by the mysterious coronavirus to 157 since it appeared in 2012. The health ministry also reported 16 new infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome raising the total so far to 511. Three women, all over 60, died in Riyadh, while two men, aged 56 and 57, died in Jeddah, the ministry said on its website.