MERS breakthrough amid 2 deaths in Madinah, Qatar

US doctors on Sunday said a combination of two anti-viral drugs was an option for treating MERS respiratory disease after the therapy was found to work on lab monkeys.
Two drugs — interferon-alpha 2b and ribavirin — that are commonly used together against hepatitis C inhibited the spread of the MERS coronavirus in the rhesus macaques species, they said.
The combination also braked inflammation and reduced the risk of pneumonia in treated animals, they said.
The combination “should be considered as an early intervention therapy” given the lack of targeted treatment or vaccine for MERS, they wrote in the journal Nature Medicine.
Meanwhile, the MERS coronavirus has killed two more people in the Gulf, one in Madinah and one in Qatar.
The death of a 74-year-old man in Madinah was the 45th fatality in the Kingdom. The Health Ministry also said on Sunday that three women aged between 64 and 75 had contracted the disease.
A 29-year-old Qatari admitted to hospital on Aug. 17 has died, Qatar’s Supreme Council of Health said in a statement dated Sept. 6, adding that another citizen who had contracted the disease while abroad had recovered.
A cousin to the SARS virus, MERS causes flu-like symptoms, with fever and respiratory difficulties, but can also lead to organ failure.