Medical staff account for less than 20% of corona patients

Public and private hospitals across the Kingdom have intensified their campaigns to enlighten the public about the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus and to spread awareness about precautionary measures against the killer disease.
Dr. Mohammed Mujahid Abbas, an ICU consultant and head of infectious diseases at the International Medical Center (IMC), gave a lecture at Jeddah National Hospital (JNH) and described MERS as a hospital-based disease.
He emphasized the need to control the number of people visiting hospitals as part of efforts to prevent the spread of MERS, which has killed 117 patients in the Kingdom. “We should also isolate suspected cases,” he said.
Abbas, who has worked as a consultant in infectious diseases and critical care in the US and at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, advised hospitals to quarantine patients who manifest different symptoms, such as coughing, sneezing and pneumonia.
He said medical staff account for less than 20 percent of the total number of people who died or were infected by the MERS virus.
“Top hospital management should be involved in dealing with MERS cases. They should have an emergency plan and keep some beds ready for treating hospital staff in case they are infected by the virus,” he said.
He advised doctors to use gloves, masks and eye protectors while dealing with suspected patients.
“Most MERS victims in the Kingdom are elderly and patients who were suffering from chronic diseases,” Abbas said, adding that about 50 percent of confirmed cases did not develop any symptoms.
“Hopefully, the effect of this deadly disease will die down will die down in coming months,” he said.
“The sudden surge in the number of MERS cases in the past month may be because of increased public awareness or advancement in mechanisms applied for detecting the disease,” said Abbas.