Ministry of Health collaborating with WHO on monitoring virus
February 16, 2013
Abu Dhabi: Although 11 registered cases of a new Sars-like virus have been reported worldwide, no cases have been recorded in the UAE yet, a senior official at the Ministry of Health told Gulf News.
The ministry is also closely monitoring the spread of the virus, known as novel coronavirus or NCoV, which was first identified last year.
“The ministry is collaborating closely with the World Health Organisation on this issue, and so far no residents have been diagnosed with the virus in the UAE,” the official said.
“This therefore means that the virus is under control, and has not spread to too many people. It also means that there is no cause for panic as the virus is not spreading at a dangerous pace,” he added.
The virus was first noted when WHO issued an international alert last September, saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a Qatari man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.
Since then, 11 people have been affected by it, including two confirmed cases reported in Britain last week. According to the WHO updates on the virus, the first of the two cases is a man with a travel history to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The other is a UK resident related to the first patient, with no travel history outside the UK. Both have been hospitalised in intensive care units.
According to the official, there are also no travel restrictions in the UAE at present.
“We have received no such recommendations from the WHO and its regional office in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, so no restrictions are in place,” he said.
According to the WHO, common symptoms among confirmed cases of NCoV include acute,respiratory illness with fever, cough, shortness of breath, and breathing difficulties,
Health authorities have been on the watch since NcoV was reported, especially as it belongs to the same family as Sars , or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, which killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide in late 2002 and early 2003.
A WHO update released last Wednesday states that the two new cases in Britain suggest the virus can be transmitted from person to person. It however adds that “the risk of sustained person-to-person transmission appears to be very low on the basis of current evidence”. So far, only five of the 11 people infected by NCoV have died.
The WHO does however recommend general measures to prevent respiratory illnesses, including avoiding close contact with anyone who shows symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, as well as good hand hygiene. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/health/no-cases-of-novel-coronavirus-in-uae-1.1146877?utm_content=1.1146877&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_campaign=No_cases_of_novel_coronavirus_in_UAE&localLinksEnabled=false&utm_term=UAE_news_RSS_feed
