Conference to focus on MERS link with camel

RIYADH: An international conference started here Monday focusing on infectious diseases including the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and its link with camels.
Nisreen Murad Al-Sherbini, president of the organizing committee of the two-day event at Prince Sultan Military Medical City, said delegates would discuss advances in treatment and prevention, including for Ebola and dengue fever.
In the Kingdom, since 2012, there have been 1,280 cases of MERS, which includes 551 deaths and 729 people who have recovered. No new cases have been reported over the past 11 days in the Kingdom.
According to the World Health Organization the full picture on the source of the virus is not yet clear. Strains of MERS that match human strains have been isolated from camels in Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. These and other studies have found MERS antibodies in camels across Africa and the Middle East.