MERS battle stepped up as another victim dies

One death and seven more cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS) were reported yesterday, bringing the total of people infected to 62, including 34 deaths.
According to an official from the Ministry of Health, four infected patients from Riyadh and in the Eastern Province were between the age group of seven and 15 years of age.
Although, these patients were not showing symptoms of the disease, clinical tests have proven positive.
The other three cases included two female health officials and a 50-year-old woman, who is being treated for pulmonary disease in Al-Ahsa in the Eastern region.
So far 20 patients have fully recovered and 10 more are being treated at various hospitals in the affected areas.
In a letter addressed to the Ministry of Health yesterday, Ala Alwan, the World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean appreciated the efforts undertaken by the Kingdom to combat the virus.
“I take this opportunity to express our deep appreciation and sincere gratitude to Health Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, and to all his employees at the Ministry of Health for their valuable cooperation with the WHO in containing virus,” Alwan noted.
The WHO meeting on the virus, which took place in Cairo, called for continued surveillance and strengthened global awareness campaign against the virus.
The meeting acknowledged that despite no current evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, MERS-CoV might evolve to spread quickly among humans and affect wider geographical areas.
While major knowledge gaps remain in understanding the emergence of this virus, clinical manifestations as well as the transmission risk, recent scientific research is enhancing the global knowledge on the disease.
This new knowledge now needs to be translated into a set of concrete public health actions in order to improve global and regional public health preparedness, said the WHO official.