Spain-Health studied 40 people in contact with the new virus

Health studied 40 people in contact with the new virus

• Besides family, friends and health, has contacted the plane's passengers

• The woman traveled to Saudi Arabia to Spain with respiratory symptoms

Electron micrograph of MERS-CoV (scanned image to color). CYNTHIA CDC GOLDSMITH

VALERIO MARIA Madrid

Updated: 07/11/2013 13:41 pm

Although this is an imported case and that there is a risk from the standpoint of public health, detection of the first case of Saudi coronavirus Spain was forced to launch a complex machinery of surveillance and prevention put on alert physicians, microbiologists, epidemiologists ... As confirmed by the Ministry of Health to THE WORLD right now especially is monitored 40 people who have been in contact with the Moroccan woman who remains hospitalized and stable Majadahonda Puerta de Hierro Hospital in Madrid.
Sources Ana Mato department heads explain that you are doing track "about 40 people between health, family and patients, who have had close contact" with the woman.
Spanish authorities are getting in contact with the persons of the flight near the woman traveled from Saudi Arabia to our country. Specifically, clarify, on the plane is considered 'contact' to those in two rows in a circle from the seat of the patient: "I mean, two passengers on the right and two left, two rows in front left and right and the same thing back. " In this case, as the configuration of the aircraft was three seats on each side of the aisle and as affected riding in the middle seat, you are analyzing only the two people traveling beside (in addition to the two rows in front and back).
Health authorities also include among this group contagion risk to members of the cabin crew that were in direct contact with the affected and health workers that could having attended at first without adequate protection (masks, gloves. ..)

Surveillance for 21 days

According to agreed protocols between Health and the CCAA for these cases, monitoring is recommended for two weeks all these people to monitor respiratory symptoms from appearing. Besides all epidemiological data were collected a blood sample in the first seven days (which will be analyzed at the National Center of Microbiology, Institute Carlos III) and, if they remain without symptoms, a second sample at 21 days.
Inmaculada Casas and Francisco Pozo, Unit Respiratory and Flu Virus Carlos III, explain that to confirm the diagnosis respiratory samples taken from both the upper respiratory tract (nasopharyngeal) and lower (bronchoalveolar lavage and tracheal aspirate sample even Sputum). "Do not forget that serum samples from symptom onset and after 10 days of onset of these symptoms are of great interest to perform serology studies that complement the information obtained from respiratory specimens."
As acknowledged by the Ministry in its document 'Procedure of action against infections with the new coronavirus (MERS-CoV)', aimed at health professionals, today is not known for how long you can keep infecting a patient, so that "all samples collected for laboratory investigation should be treated as potentially infectious." And that includes not only respiratory samples (sputum, bronchial aspirate, nasopharyngeal ...), but also the urine and feces, which also detected the presence of the virus.
According to this protocol, the woman remains isolated in a negative pressure room in Madrid hospital (with special filters and a lower pressure outside to open the door to anything you have on the environment pops out) and although presents a picture of pneumonia with severe respiratory problems, "the situation is stable and progressing well".
This is a 61 year old Moroccan citizen, resident in Spain, who traveled to Saudi Arabia between October 2 and November 1 (although whether traveled to participate in the pilgrimage to Mecca, health authorities had strengthened itself epidemiological surveillance for this reason). This is precisely the focus country of origin of this new respiratory virus, never before seen in humans. Since 2012 has affected some 150 people (mostly in Arabia and neighboring countries) and although it is a very high figure, especially concerned about the mortality rate of the virus, about 50%.http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elmundo.es%2Fsalud%2F2013%2F11%2F07%2F527b8665684341c00c8b457e.html
In Spain, this is the first time a case is reported with suspected coronavirus infection. 

Indonesia-Five pilgrims DIY Declared Suspect Had Mers-CoV

Thursday, November 7, 2013, 8:57 pmREPUBLIKA.CO.ID, YOGYAKARTA - Five pilgrims on their return to DIY DIY was declared suspect Mers-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus). They had been treated at Dr Sardjito (two people), Hospital Morangan-Sleman (one person), Hospital-Panembahan Senopati Bantul (one person), and Bethesda Hospital Yogya (one person).
'' From the Laboratory of the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Jakarta was declared negative,'' said Head of Prevention and Control of Health Department of Health Problems DIY Daryanto Chadorie.

Of these five, there was one person who died last Wednesday, which is being treated at Bethesda Hospital, but because of comorbidities. In fact, if there are mild cases of Mers-CoV health center can handle it, but when it's weight category should be referred to hospital.

Currently, hospitals in the province designated by the Ministry of Health as a referral hospital for Mers-CoV is Sardjito Hospital and Hospital Panembahan Senopati Bantul. Although the pilgrims had gone all DIY, DIY Health Department and staff remain alert to Mers-CoV.

'' To prevent lest Mers-CoV entry into DIY by screening at airports for passengers returning from countries that have no cases of Mers-CoV and high body temperature (38 degrees Celsius) to the top,'' he said. ,

Meanwhile Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health, Ministry of Health, Prof. Tjandra Yoga Aditama, said a person who is declared "suspected" completely not necessarily mean pain. Most of the "suspect" bird flu, or "suspected" Mers CoV and others that ultimately negative laboratory results.

The term "suspect" made for caution to health care and screening forms for further detection, he said. All the people who are coughing, fever, no pneumonia, and home of the Arabian peninsula that could be categorized as a "suspect" Mers CoV. They then carefully examined in the laboratory, particularly with PCR.

'' If the result is negative, meaning that the patient was suffering from bacterial pneumonia. It's just by chance had just returned from Saudi Arabia and because it called "suspected" Mers CoV,'' he said.
 http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.republika.co.id%2Fberita%2Fnasional%2Fumum%2F13%2F11%2F07%2Fmvves8-lima-jamaah-haji-diy-sempat-dinyatakan-suspek-merscov

Update: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)

November 05, 2013 - Update: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) ~ More cases reported

Reports: 14 13 12 11 10 > >>

Highlights | Sources

Event Update: The Public Health Agency of Canada reports that since April 2012, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases have been identified in nine countries:  France, Oman, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom (UK). The initial cases in France, Italy, Tunisia and the UK were linked to travel to the Middle East. Some of the infections have occurred in clusters through close contacts or in a health care setting. This suggests that the virus can spread between humans, however, there has been no sustained person-to-person transmission and the risk of contracting this infection is still considered to be low.

To date, WHO has been informed of a global total of ▲150 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 64 deaths. For the latest updates on MERS-CoV including the total number of cases and deaths please visit the World Health Organization’s Global Alert and Response website.
Coronaviruses are the cause of the common cold but can also be the cause of more severe illnesses including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). At this time, there is still more to learn about this new strain of coronavirus. People who have been infected with MERS-CoV have experienced influenza-like illness with signs and symptoms of pneumonia, which may include coughing, mucous, shortness of breath, malaise, chest pain and/or fever. Many have also had gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea.
The World Health Organization continues to work with relevant ministries of health and other international partners to support investigations to gain a better understanding of the disease and its risks. There continues to be no travel restrictions as the risk to travellers remains very low.
RecommendationsConsult a doctor, nurse or health care provider, or visit a travel health clinic at least six weeks before you travel.
1. Protect yourself and others from the spread of germs and flu-like illnessIf you are sick with symptoms from an flu-like illness, delay travel or stay home:• Travellers should recognize signs and symptoms of flu-like illness, and delay travel or stay home if not feeling well.
• Travellers should note that they may be subject to quarantine measures in some countries including Saudi Arabia if showing flu-like symptoms.

Wash your hands frequently:• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with your hands as germs can be spread this way. For example, if you touch a doorknob that has germs on it then touch your mouth, you can get sick.
• Wash your hands with soap under warm running water for at least 20 seconds, as often as possible.
• Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available. It’s a good idea to always keep some with you when you travel..
Practise proper cough and sneeze etiquette:• Cover your mouth and nose with your arm to reduce the spread of germs. Remember if you use a tissue, dispose of it as soon as possible and wash your hands afterwards.

Try to avoid close contact with people who are sick.
2. Stay up-to-date with your vaccinationsThere is no vaccine for this novel coronavirus, however, it is important to be up-to-date on all of your routine and recommended vaccinations, including this year's seasonal flu vaccine, prior to travel.

3. Be aware that the risk may be higher for travellers with chronic medical conditions (e.g.: diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, respiratory disease) who may require medical care while abroad
4. Practice safe water and food precautions.
5. Avoid close contact with live farm or wild animals.
6. Monitor your healthIf you develop flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough and/or shortness of breath within 14 days after your return to Canada, especially if you have a chronic medical condition:
• Seek medical attention immediately.
• Tell your health care provider which countries you have visited while travelling.

For the latest updates on coronavirus including the total number of cases and deaths please visit the World Health Organization’s Global Alert and Response website.http://www.healthandsafetywatch.com/HSWEvents.aspx?EventID=b7e35b31-54b0-4282-af9c-f39fb71a4ecd&EntityType=1&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

H7N9 influenza Central Epidemic Command Center has recommended the Guangdong Provincial Tourism epidemic level raised, and the same as a Grade II Zhejiang: "Alert (Alert).

Mainland China and Hong Kong media reported on the 6th, Dongguan City, Guangdong determined following the new H7N9 avian influenza infection after one case, Jiaxing City, also reported a 64-year-old farmer women infected H7N9, but serious condition. H7N9 influenza Central Epidemic Command Center has recommended the Guangdong Provincial Tourism epidemic level raised, and the same as a Grade II Zhejiang: "Alert (Alert)." Dongguan case was a 3-year-old five-month-old boy with mild symptoms, is currently isolated observation; in this case this year, Guangdong Province, the first two cases.

Read more: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.want-daily.com/portal.php%3Fmod%3Dview%26aid%3D92756&usg=ALkJrhiSOhWTi5a0QHg4vKrt_ZYnVRSsqw#ixzz2juvYmwKx

MERS In Hajj Pilgrim Raises Transparency Concerns

Recombinomics Commentary 23:30
November 6, 2013

According to the director explained how the Coordinating Center and Emergency Health Alerts, Fernando Simón, it is "a woman of 61 years who was in Saudi Arabia between October 2 and November 1" and "initiated a respiratory symptoms with fever and cough on 15 October. "

After that, "the 28 and October 20 began a process in which he was diagnosed with pneumonia in a hospital in Saudi Arabia." Later, Simon explained that she "traveled back to Spain on November 1 and was diagnosed back in Puerta de Hierro".

The above translation provides additional information on the Hajj pilgrim (61F) who was MERS confirmed in Spain (see map).  She developed symptoms on October 15, during the Hajj.  Although the hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) diagnosed pneumonia, they failed to identify the etiological agent, which was done is Spain.

Consequently, the pilgrim returned to Spain, leading to significant exposure of other passengers as well as contacts in Spain, including health care workers.  However, the vast majority of Hajj pilgrims did not come from Spain raising concerns that MERS was widely dispersed, although only Spain has reported a confirmed case and all recent confirmed cases in KSA were in Riyadh and the Eastern Region (primarily Jubail).

Many countries reported symptomatic returning pilgrims, but all reported cases were negative, including a fatality in Egypt who was H1N1pdm09 confirmed.

Detection of MERS is a challenge as seen by the failure of KSA to identify MERS in any of the millions of pilgrims participating in the Hajj.  The Spain pilgrim was hospitalized with pneumonia, which is similar to the Al Hasa outbreak where 11 cases were classified as probably because they had pneumonia and contacts with a confirmed MERS case, but were either not tested or only tested once.

The current confirmed case in Spain raises concerns that MERS was widely dispersed from KSA and largely missed by receiving countries. http://www.recombinomics.com/News/11061302/MERS_Hajj_Transparency.html

Spain has first MERS case; woman went to Hajj

Health officials in Spain have detected a case of MERS in a woman who recently returned to the country after attending last month’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
The Spanish Ministry of Health said the woman was admitted to hospital in Madrid on Nov. 1 and is in stable condition. In its press release, the ministry said it is following up with people who were in contact with her to determine if others have contracted the sickness.
That will likely involve tracking people who travelled on the same plane or planes with the ill woman, who journeyed back to Spain from Saudi Arabia shortly before being hospitalized.
The woman was already experiencing signs of her illness before she left the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a World Health Organization expert said Wednesday.
“She became symptomatic while she was in KSA,” said Dr. Anthony Mounts, the WHO’s point person for the new virus, a cousin of the coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak.
“We understand that she did perform the Hajj and came back and was admitted to hospital in Spain and was tested there.”
Mounts did not know if the woman flew on a commercial airline or on one of the charter flights used by many who travel to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj, the massive annual international pilgrimage that draws Muslims from around the world to their religion’s most sacred sites, Mecca and Medina.
This year’s Hajj took place from Oct. 13 to 18, though pilgrims started converging on Saudi Arabia in late September and typically many remain in the country for a period afterwards. This woman is believed to have spent most of the month of October in the kingdom.
Countries elsewhere have been on the lookout for illness in their returning pilgrims. In the past couple of weeks there have been a number of false alarms where people ill with flu-like systems were identified as possible MERS cases. But until now, all have tested negative for the virus.
In fact, Mounts said earlier this week he felt the world might soon be able to conclude that the Hajj had not served as a transmission event to spread the virus from Saudi Arabia — which has recorded 125 of the 151 confirmed cases — to other parts of the globe.
On Wednesday, he said it may be too soon to conclude that yet.
“I think it does give us pause,” he said of the case. “I think it means that we really do have to wait a little while longer before we’re sure we’re out of danger.”  http://metronews.ca/news/world/846723/spain-has-first-mers-case-woman-went-to-hajj/

Detected a case of the new coronavirus in Spain

• The patient, who remained during the month of October in Saudi Arabia, is stable

• According to the Ministry of Health, 'no risk to public health in Spain'

• To date 63 deaths have been reported and 150 cases confirmed

• United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy, other European countries with cases

Image of a strain of the family of coronaviruses. AFP

THE WORLD Madrid

Updated: 11/06/2013 20:57 pm

The Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality has reported the detection of an imported case in Spain with laboratory evidence for human infection with the novel coronavirus. A pathogen of the same family as the SARS virus that generated 10 years ago 8,000 infections and 700 deaths.
The new affected woman is a resident of Spain, born in Morocco, who had traveled to Saudi Arabia and is admitted to the Hospital Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda (Madrid), where they have taken all over the case, well as possible contacts as operating procedures agreed between the Ministry and the autonomous.
According to the director explained how the Coordinating Center and Emergency Health Alerts, Fernando Simón, it is "a woman of 61 years who was in Saudi Arabia between October 2 and November 1" and "initiated a respiratory symptoms with fever and cough on October 15, "according to Efe.
After that, "the 28 and October 20 began a process in which he was diagnosed with pneumonia in a hospital in Saudi Arabia." Later, Simon explained that she "traveled back to Spain on November 1 and was diagnosed back in Puerta de Hierro".
At present, the patient has a "developing pneumonia with severe respiratory problem", while in "stable condition and evolving favorably".... http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elmundo.es%2Fsalud%2F2013%2F11%2F06%2F527a753863fd3d301d8b458f.html

Tien Giang announced on avian flu A/H5N1

11/06/2013 21:10

(TNO) Date 6:11, Tien Giang Province People's Committee issued Decision No. 2677/QD-UBND, announced A/H5N1 flu in poultry in two Tan Phu and Tan Thoi commune, Tan Phu Dong district.

PPC requires districts and mobilize all manpower, material resources necessary for the epidemic to epidemic areas, agriculture directed Veterinary Department, the units coordinate with the departments, organizations implementing prevention measures against A/H5N1 flu .
According to the Veterinary Department of Tien Giang, from 31.10 to 4:11, veterinary noted in 4 households in the area two Tan Phu and Tan Thoi have ducks disease and death. Total of 4 ducks are 938 households, of which, 315 557 children die of the disease. All ducks are 4 signs of bird flu and the test results were positive for influenza A/H5N1 virus. All the remaining ducks were destroyed functional forces.
So far, veterinary vaccinated more than 12,000 surrounded the cam/54 households in two communes in Tan Phu and Tan Thoi; while disinfection organized, sterile environment for the household and the household poultry disease neighborhood

Vaccine Approved for Japanese encephalitis

Vaccine Approved for Brain Fever

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: November 4, 2013

The World Health Organization has approved a new vaccine for a strain of encephalitis that kills thousands of children and leaves many survivors with permanent brain damage.

The move allows United Nations agencies and other donors to buy it.

The disease, called Japanese encephalitis or brain fever, is caused by a mosquito-transmitted virus that can live in pigs, birds and humans. Less than 1 percent of those infected get seriously ill, but it kills up to 15,000 children a year and disables many more. Up to four billion people, from southern Russia to the Pacific islands, are at risk; it is more prevalent near rice paddies.

There is no cure.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/health/vaccine-approved-for-brain-fever.html?_r=0

The low-cost vaccine, approved last month, is the first authorized by the agency for children and the first Chinese-made vaccine it has approved.

It is made by China National Biotec Group and was tested by PATH, a nonprofit group in Seattle with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Margaret Chan, W.H.O.’s director-general, said she hoped that approval would encourage other vaccine makers from China and elsewhere to enter the field.

China had given the vaccine domestically to 200 million children over many years but had never sought W.H.O. approval.

India, which previously bought 88 million doses from China, launched the first locally produced version last month.

A Novartis vaccine for Japanese encephalitis, Ixiaro, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration. But travel clinics charge $200 or more for it. Two weeks after the W.H.O. approved the Chinese vaccine, the F.D.A. granted Ixiaro’s maker seven years of exclusivity.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/health/vaccine-approved-for-brain-fever.html?_r=0

Spain press release on corona case

Press Releases

Detected an imported case of the new coronavirus in Spain

• The patient had traveled to Saudi Arabia
• The patient, who remained during the month of October in Saudi Arabia, is located in a favorable position and stable
• The case does not pose a risk to public health in Spain
• Health authorities have followed national and international procedures for dealing with this case

November 6, 2013.'s Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality has reported the detection of an imported case in Spain with positive laboratory results for human infection with the new coronavirus.

This is a woman living in Spain, born in Morocco, who had traveled to Saudi Arabia and is admitted to the Hospital Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda (Madrid), where they have taken all over the case, and on possible contacts as operating procedures agreed between the Ministry and the autonomous.

The patient, who was admitted on November 1, remains in a favorable and stable. The samples analyzed in the National Microbiology Center have tested positive to the new coronavirus infection.

The Ministry and the Community of Madrid are proceeding to identify all close contacts of the patient, as recommended in the procedures agreed at national and international level.

An imported case in which all these measures have been established, no risk to public health in Spain.

Following the provisions of the International Health Regulations, the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality has notified the World Health Organization and the European rapid alert network (EWRS), with which it maintains close monitoring of the situation, together with the Ministry of Health of the Community of Madrid.

NEW CORONAVIRUS

The Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus Middle East was identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. Most people affected by this respiratory virus acute respiratory disease presents with fever, cough and difficulty breathing.

To date there have been reported 150 confirmed cases, 125 of them in Saudi Arabia. All cases have been reported in five countries in the Middle East (Saudi, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman). In Europe there have been cases, all imported from this area, in four countries: United Kingdom (two cases), Germany (two cases), France (one case) and Italy (one case).

For more information about the coronavirus please consult the website of the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality. http://www.msssi.gob.es/profesionales/saludPublica/ccayes/alertasActual/corVir.htm .    http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.msssi.gob.es/en/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dspanish%2Bministry%2Bof%2Bhealth%2Bwebsite%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D840%26bih%3D436

MERS coronavirus doesn’t yet have pandemic potential yet, but Hajj, other factors could change disease:

The new MERS coronavirus currently doesn’t spread well enough among people to trigger a pandemic, says a new study that calculates the rate at which the virus is transmitting person to person.
But the senior author says the pattern of how the virus is spreading now cannot be used to predict whether MERS will become a bigger threat in the future.
“There is absolutely no guarantee that this virus will stay as it is. It could very well follow the same path as SARS did 10 years ago,” Dr. Arnaud Fontanet, who heads the emerging diseases epidemiology unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, said in an interview.

‘Closer to SARS than anything else’: MERS virus in Saudi Arabia moved between humans with ease: study

A long-awaited report on a large and possibly still ongoing outbreak of MERS coronavirus in Saudi Arabia reveals the virus spreads easily within hospitals, at one point passing in a person-to-person chain that encompassed at least five generations of spread.
The study, co-written by Toronto SARS expert Dr. Allison McGeer, also hints there may have been a superspreader in this outbreak, with one person infecting at least seven others.
Read more…

Others too say the study should not be used to write off the new virus.
“The virus has shown a potential for human-to-human transmission. And whether such transmission is sustained depends on the intensity of control measures as well as the characteristics of the people involved in transmission,” said Marc Lipsitch, an infectious diseases specialist who teaches at Harvard University.
“For that reason, I think it’s premature to say that this virus does not present a pandemic threat.”
The study, published in the journal The Lancet, analyzes what is known about how often people who have been infected with the MERS virus spread it to one or more other people. The authors used the data to calculate what is called the basic reproduction number, known in the parlance of infectious diseases as the R nought.
In order for a disease to achieved sustained spread, the average infected person must spread a bacterium or virus to at least one other person. That is an R nought of one. A pathogen with a basic reproduction number of less than one would peter out.

‘I think it’s premature to say that this virus does not present a pandemic threat’

The measles virus, which is very contagious, has a basic reproductive number of between 12 and 18, meaning that among people who are susceptible to the virus, each infected person would be expected to pass the virus to between a dozen and 18 other people. In a 2003 study in the journal Science, Lipsitch and colleagues estimated the R nought of SARS to be three.
Using the publicly available data on MERS cases, Fontanet and his co-authors set out to figure out what the basic reproduction number for the new coronavirus has been to date.
There are many holes in the available data. For instance, Saudi Arabia, which is responsible for 63 of the 77 confirmed MERS cases, often does not disclose if new infections have links to previous ones — which might mean they caught the virus from another person — or are what are called sporadic cases, people thought to have been infected by an animal or exposure to the virus in the environment.
The authors tried to work around the gaps by calculating best- and worst-case scenarios. Both, it turns out, came up with a reproductive number of less than one, which suggests the virus doesn’t yet have pandemic potential, they said. Those rates were 0.60 and 0.69 respectively.
The authors noted that in the early stages of SARS it had a reproductive number of 0.80, closer to one than what is currently seen with the MERS virus. But they suggested that even though the viruses are cousins, people should be cautious about drawing too many comparisons because the viruses are different and have cropped up in different parts of the world.
SARS emerged from crowded southern China, where a taste for wild meat brought people in contact with SARS-infected civet cats. So far MERS infections have been traced only to Middle Eastern countries. While the ultimate reservoir of the virus is presumed to be bats, it is also thought that some animal species is acting as a bridge, bringing the virus from bats to people. So far, though, the source of the virus has not been identified.
Experts familiar with MERS or with the process of calculating a basic reproductive number echoed Fontanet’s suggestion that people should not over-interpret the study’s findings.

‘I just don’t think there’s any way of knowing what the future holds for MERS’

“The difference between what’s going on with MERS now and SARS then is only that MERS doesn’t seem to be moving at the same pace,” said Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious diseases expert who was involved in Toronto’s battle against SARS and who has travelled twice to Saudi Arabia to help investigate its MERS outbreak.
“I just don’t think there’s any way of knowing” what the future holds for MERS, McGeer said. “It’s going to do what it likes.”
She had some concerns about the designation of cases as sporadic or linked in the Lancet paper, noting the authors suggested an outbreak in a hospital in Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia was not linked to another large outbreak in several hospitals in Al-Hasa.
In fact, the Dammam cases are an extension of the Al-Hasa outbreak, she said, though she acknowledged that information has not been clearly stated. McGeer helped investigate the Al-Hasa outbreak and was a major author on a recent New England Journal of Medicine article on it.
Meanwhile, a commentary published with Fontanet’s study stresses that the MERS virus could evolve by developing mutations that allow it to be more transmissible among people. That is known to have happened with the SARS virus.
And the commentary, by researchers from the applied mathematics department of the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont., said the future behaviour of the virus could also be affected by factors like changes in the season, or events like the Hajj, in which as many as three million pilgrims from around the world flock to the Muslim faith’s holiest site, Mecca.

‘We’re definitely not out of the woods’

“In terms of what the public should take home from this, it’s that we’re definitely not out of the woods,” said Waterloo’s Chris Bauch.
“It could go up not only because it [the virus] evolves but because the Hajj is coming up. And not only are you going to have slaughter of (potentially) infected animals, but you’re also going to have a possibility for transporting it to other countries.”
Fontanet said the priority now should be finding the source of the virus and limiting the chances it has to spread to people. The more times the virus infects people, the more chances it has to develop mutations that would help it adapt to spreading easily among humans, he said.
“It’s precisely because it is not yet that transmissible that it’s the perfect timing for identifying the animal reservoir and stopping it at the source,” he continued.
“If that had been done for SARS 10 years ago when it was circulating in southeast China before moving to Hong Kong and the rest of the world, it might have prevented a pandemic.”   http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/07/05/mers-coronavirus-doesnt-yet-have-pandemic-potential-yet-but-hajj-other-factors-could-change-course-of-disease-experts/

WHO forms emergency committee on new MERS virus

The World Health Organization says it has set up an emergency committee of experts to keep an eye on the new MERS virus that’s killed 42 people, most of them in Saudi Arabia.
There’s no evidence the virus has started to cause a pandemic – a global outbreak of disease. And a study published on Friday shows that by one measure, the virus isn’t infectious enough to cause one – yet.
But WHO and other health experts say the virus is very worrying.
"We want to make sure we can move as quickly as possible if we need to,” said Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s top flu expert.
"If in the future we do see some kind of explosion or if there is some big outbreak or we think the situation has really changed, we will already have a group of emergency committee experts who are already up to speed so we don't have to go through a steep learning curve,” Fukuda told a news conference.MERS (short for Middle East respiratory syndrome) broke out just over a year ago in Saudi Arabia. WHO has official confirmation of 79 cases and 42 deaths – a rate that shows the virus is extremely deadly.
One of the latest deaths – a Qatari man who had been in a London hospital since September.
A single patient can infect many others. MERS is a relative of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus that spread globally from China in 2003, killed 775 people and infected close to 800 before it was stopped.
SARS spread in what are known as clusters in which certain people seemed to be far more infectious than others. These “superspreaders” infected groups of health care workers or others they came into contact with. There’s some evidence MERS might spread that way sometimes, too, although not always.
And any virus is just an airplane ride away from anywhere else in the world. SARS spread slowly within China for weeks or months before travelers carried it globally. In one notorious instance, an infected traveler became sick and threw up in a Hong Kong hotel. He infected seven other people, who eventually carried the virus to Canada, Vietnam, Singapore and elsewhere in Hong Kong.
MERS has been reported in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and Britain. MERS has not been seen in the United States, although a handful of travelers have been tested for the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One reason experts are especially worried about MERS is that it has spread in hospitals and clinics. Also, Saudi Arabia will host the annual Hajj, with its influx of millions of observant Muslims from all over the world, in October.
But there’s some reassuring news. A French team has calculated the infectiousness of MERS and found it’s not yet as transmissible as measles, smallpox or even flu in a bad year.
Arnaud Fontanet of the Pasteur Institute in Paris and colleagues looked at a measure called R0, which reflects how many other people an infected person might transmit a disease to.
“When R0 is above 1, epidemic potential has been reached,” Fontanet’s team writes in the Lancet medical journal.
“With our most pessimistic scenario, we estimated MERS-CoV (MERS coronavirus) R0 to be 0.69; by contrast, the R0 for prepandemic SARS-CoV (SARS coronavirus) was 0.8,” they added.
“Our analysis suggests that MERS-CoV does not yet have pandemic potential.”
To compare, R0 for measles and whooping cough is 12 or higher in unvaccinated groups, for polio it’s between 5 and 7, and for HIV it’s between 2 and 5.
Researchers found after SARS was over that it had repeatedly passed from animals to people in China, mutating in the process until it took on a form that more easily infected people and that more easily passed from person to person.
“The same sequence of events might be occurring with MERS-CoV, which has been repeatedly introduced into the human population for more than a year (from an unknown animal host) and might have human pandemic potential,” Fontanet’s team wrote.
SARS was eventually traced to bats and an animal called a civet, a delicacy in China. Scientists suspect MERS also comes from an animal, but they haven’t been able to find the source yet.   http://www.nbcnews.com/health/who-forms-emergency-committee-new-mers-virus-6C10549285

New cases of coronavirus: the Ministry of Health does not confirm

The Point.fr - Published on 11/06/2013 at 23:01

The ministry said 40 cases are being investigated, but they were all negative. One case in Tours been vigilanceNo new cases of coronavirus has been confirmed so far in France, said Tuesday the Ministry of Health, stating that an investigation was underway regarding a patient Tours. "There is so far no new cases in France coronavirus confirmed nor Tours, or elsewhere," said the Ministry of Health, following reports of two suspected cases of coronavirus in a hospital Tours. "Since the identification of the two carriers coronavirus patients, 40 cases were investigated. All were negative. One investigation is underway concerning a patient Tours. Results are expected in tomorrow , "the ministry said.Medical sources had reported the hospitalization of two men in Tours, suspected of being infected with coronavirus. Both patients had, in France Bleu Touraine, stayed in Saudi Arabia and had symptoms that make you think coronavirus. Two French patients have so far been infected with the new coronavirus, one died at the University Hospital of Lille on 28 May. The second patient, who had been contaminated by the first to the end of April, when he shared his room at the hospital in Valenciennes, is still his hand in a "steady state" at the University Hospital of Lille. Several suspects in the entourage of the two patients had been investigated, but were ultimately negative.  http://www.lepoint.fr/societe/nouveaux-cas-de-coronavirus-le-ministere-de-la-sante-ne-confirme-pas-11-06-2013-1679852_23.php

International collaboration needed to find elusive source of MERS virus

 

Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
Tue, 11 Jun 2013 14:49:00 CST

A colorized transmission of the MERS coronavirus that emerged in 2012 is shown. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases

TORONTO - International collaboration will be needed to find the source of the elusive MERS virus, says a Canadian SARS expert who has been involved in efforts to investigate and contain an outbreak of the new coronavirus in Saudi Arabia.
Health officials in the kingdom have put a lot of work into finding and containing the virus — more work, actually, than has been publicly disclosed, Dr. Allison McGeer said in an interview.
But she said with comparatively few cases to investigate spread out over a number of countries, puzzling out where the virus lives in nature and how people are contracting it will take a bigger effort than has been made to date.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has done a lot of work in the investigation of both the human-to-human transmission (cases) and the source of community infections, but it's very clear that a great deal more work needs to be done," said McGeer, who just returned from her second MERS-related trip to Saudi Arabia.
"And that a very substantial amount of international collaboration is the only way that we're going to be able to move knowledge about this virus forward at the speed that everybody wants to see it move."
McGeer was one of the members of a World Health Organization-led mission to Saudi Arabia to investigate the country's MERS outbreak. The team concluded its six-day mission on Sunday. On Monday, it released a statement warning health-care workers around the globe to be on the lookout for the new virus because of its proven capacity to spread.
McGeer, who is head of infection control at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, also travelled to Saudi Arabia in May at the request of the Saudi government to help investigate an outbreak in a hospital in Al-Ahsa, in the eastern part of the country. McGeer was a major player in Toronto's SARS response in 2003 and even contracted the virus during the early days of the virus's spread through city hospitals.
The SARS and MERS viruses are cousins, both members of the coronavirus family.
McGeer said it appears the hospital-based outbreak in Al-Ahsa may be over, though there is still one facility where there remains a possibility of additional cases caused by person-to-person spread.
Saudi officials have to date only publicly acknowledged spread in one or possibly two hospitals in Al-Ahsa. McGeer said in fact the Al-Ahsa outbreak has involved person-to-person spread in several hospitals, though she declined to specify how many facilities have been involved.
"In the majority of facilities, the outbreak appears to be under control, although it's really important to recognize that because this (disease) has a long incubation period, that you can't declare an outbreak over (too soon)," she said.
"One of the lessons from SARS was about not declaring an outbreak over until a long enough period of time has passed."
In Toronto, an assumption that spread of SARS had been interrupted led the Ontario government to declare victory against the virus in mid-May of 2003. Hospital workers were told they no longer had to wear the N-95 respirators that shielded their mouths and noses and many quickly doffed the hot and cumbersome equipment. Within days, sick health-care workers started to show up in emergency rooms, signalling the virus was still spreading in the city's hospitals.
McGeer suggested the fact that the Al-Ahsa outbreak appears to be coming under control is good news for those concerned about the spread of the virus to other parts of the world — or at least to parts of the world with strong health-care systems. The WHO has voiced concerns about the possibility that guest workers — citizens of Bangladesh, the Philippines and other parts of Asia who work in Saudi Arabia — could take the virus home with them and trigger outbreaks in less developed countries.
"The hospital person-to-person transmission appears to be manageable. It may not be easy. But it appears to be manageable, at least in the developed world," she said. "But the critical piece of understanding this virus is understanding what the reservoir is and how people get infected in the community."
McGeer offered some insight into why that is proving to be such an enormous — and frustrating — challenge.
While there have been 55 confirmed cases of MERS, in reality there have been relatively few cases that could be described as index cases — people who were infected by contact with the virus's source. Quite a few of the cases — McGeer would not say how many — have likely been infected through limited person-to-person spread.
That latter type of case can teach public health officials about the conditions under which the virus can spread from person to person. But to find the source of the virus, they have to investigate cases where it is clear the infection came from a non-human source. And with relatively few such cases, spread over a number of countries, co-ordinating the search has proved difficult, she said.
"We get back to there's a really small number of cases, they're in a bunch of different countries, the process of doing the exploratory work to figure out what exposures might be important has to happen with people ... on the ground in all those countries talking to each other on a regular basis," McGeer said.
"That's not something we're set up to do. It's really hard to get that organized and working well."
Adding to the complexity is the fact that a successful epidemiological investigation will require someone who understands the culture of the countries in which infections are taking place, someone who can decipher the clues seen in the pattern of cases to date. Most have been in men. Many cases have been seen in travellers — men from Britain, Italy and Tunisia who travelled to Saudi Arabia, a man from France who travelled to the United Arab Emirates.
"There's a bunch of hints in the data we have so far about the cases. But that's exactly what they are," McGeer said. "And they do help to some degree guide how you should do the investigation. But they're not enough for somebody to say: 'Ah! It's the dates.'"
Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province is a major date-producing area, and people have mused about the possibility that virus from bats may be contaminating dates in some way. (The genetic sequence of the virus suggests it originated in bats.) But McGeer noted it isn't currently date harvest time.  http://www.mysask.com/portal/site/main/template.MAXIMIZE/?javax.portlet.tpst=635b2ff202604ea181fa421740315ae8_ws_MX&javax.portlet.prp_635b2ff202604ea181fa421740315ae8_viewID=story&javax.portlet.prp_635b2ff202604ea181fa421740315ae8_topic_display_name=Health%20News&javax.portlet.prp_635b2ff202604ea181fa421740315ae8_topic_name=Health&javax.portlet.prp_635b2ff202604ea181fa421740315ae8_news_item_id_key=23766729&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

France reports new suspected cases of MERS virus

MENAFN - AFP - 11/06/2013

MENAFN - AFP) French medical authorities on Tuesday reported two new suspected cases of infection with the SARS-like virus MERS which has killed more than 30 people worldwide, the bulk of them in Saudi Arabia.

The patients suspected of having contracted the virus are both men who have recently spent time in Saudi Arabia and they have been hospitalised in Tours, a town in the Loire region south of Paris...  http://www.menafn.com/1093643537/France-reports-new-suspected-cases-of-MERS-virus

Coronavirus: the French second patient still in a "stationary" state

The second patient northerner, from Aulnoye-Aymeries, reached by the new coronavirus was still Monday in a "stationary" state, two weeks after the death of the first patient in the University Hospital of Lille.



By Emmanuel Magdalene
Published 10/06/2013 | 5:27 p.m.



"There is no change either in the right or in the wrong direction" for the patient, who remains hospitalized in the intensive care unit, told AFP a spokesman for the hospital .

  The last medical report of the second patient, published by the University Hospital on May 28, evoked a state "stable but still very serious." This man has been contaminated by the virus similar to SARS in late April, when he shared the Valenciennes hospital room the first patient in France, fell ill after returning from a trip to Dubai.


55 people affected worldwide

The first patient died on May 28, when he was hospitalized in intensive care in Lille since May 9 Both patients were under extracorporeal support to take over their lung function. This new virus, now designated by the WHO as respiratory syndrome coronavirus in the Middle East (MERS), touched since September 55 people in the world, 31 have died.

  The majority of cases were reported in Saudi Arabia, with the remainder divided between Qatar, Jordan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, the United Kingdom and France.  http://nord-pas-de-calais.france3.fr/2013/06/10/coronavirus-le-2eme-patient-francais-toujours-dans-un-etat-stationnaire-267573.html

Coronavirus: two suspects in Tours

Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at 15:25

 Two patients who may be infected with coronavirus were hospitalized at the University Hospital of Tours.  This is information of France Bleu Touraine.  They returned from the Middle East, where the coronavirus appeared last year. Only testing will indicate whether or not the third and fourth cases identified in France.  The virus has killed 31 people in the world including one in France.

As the first French cases, new patients returning from a trip to the Middle East, specifically in Mecca.  Both were hospitalized at the University Hospital of Tours, in the infectious diseases implanted Bretonneau hospital. They complain of respiratory problems and stomach aches, known coronavirus symptoms.
 To prevent possible transmission, the hospital set up in host protocol patients who presented themselves with similar symptoms.

Lethal to 50% over

With 31 victims in 55 cases identified worldwide, coronavirus kills more than half of those it infected. ....  http://www.francebleu.fr/sante/coronavirus/info-france-bleu-coronavirus-deux-cas-suspects-tours-638664  hattip Tetano

   



Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: Joint Kingdom of Saudi Arabia/WHO mission

Between 4 and 9 June 2013, a joint mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) met in Riyadh to assess the situation due to a new coronavirus in the Kingdom. This virus has recently been named the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). It is a new, emerging virus that is distantly related to the virus that caused SARS.
The first documented cases of MERS occurred in Jordan in early 2012. Globally, to date there has been a total of 55 cases confirmed by laboratory testing. Of these, 40 have occurred in KSA, and the rest have been reported from other countries in the Middle East (Qatar and the United Arab Emirates), from Tunisia in North Africa, and from France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Europe.
The overall number of cases is limited, but the virus causes death in about 60% of patients. So far, about 75% of the cases in KSA have been in men and most have occurred in people with one or more major chronic conditions.
There appears to be three main epidemiological patterns.

In the first pattern, sporadic cases occur in communities. At present, we do not know the source or how these people became infected.

In the second pattern, clusters of infections occur in families. In most of these clusters, there appears to be person-to-person transmission, but it seems that this transmission is limited to people who are in close contact with a sick family member.

The third pattern comprises clusters of infections in health care facilities. Such events have been reported in France, Jordan and KSA. In these clusters, the sequence seems to be that an infected person is admitted to hospital where that person then transmits the virus to other people in the health care facility.

Two important points need to be stressed.

First, there is no evidence of widespread person-to-person transmission of MERS-CoV. Where it has been suspected that the virus has been transmitted from person to person, it appears that there had been close contact between somebody who was sick and another person: a family member, a fellow patient or a health care worker.

Secondly, many fewer infections with MERS-CoV have been reported in health care workers in KSA than might have been expected on the basis of the previous experience of SARS. During the SARS epidemic, health care workers were at high risk of infection. The MERS-CoV is different from the SARS virus. Although the reason why fewer health care workers have been infected with MERS-CoV is not clear, it could be that improvements in infection control that were made after the outbreak of SARS have made a significant difference. In this context, infection control measures in KSA appear to be effective.

Currently, the diagnosis of MERS CoV relies heavily on clinical awareness combined with confirmatory testing for the presence of MERS-CoV by the polymerase chain reaction. No bedside test exists.

Treatment is primarily supportive and there are no convincing data that the use of potent antiviral agents, such as ribavirin and interferon, brings any benefit. The use of steroids in high doses should be avoided.
The joint mission reviewed the response in KSA, and concluded that the country has done an excellent job in investigating and controlling the outbreaks. Once the first cases were identified in 2012, several steps were taken, including the following:

Measures, including infection control measures, were introduced to stop hospital outbreaks

surveillance for MERS CoV cases was significantly increased

awareness campaigns to alert and educate the public were started

cases of MERS CoV were reported to WHO

epidemiological investigations were initiated to identify the sources of infection, risk factors and routes of transmission

international experts were invited to help.

At this point, the right prevention and control measures have been applied, and the KSA Government is to be congratulated for urgently taking crucial actions.

Some final points must be stressed.

First, large gaps in our knowledge about this virus remain. Although extensive work has been done and is ongoing, it should be remembered that it often takes time for scientific investigations to produce results.

Secondly, international concern about these infections is high, because it is possible for this virus to move around the world. There have been now several examples where the virus has moved from one country to another through travellers.

Consequently, all countries in the world need to ensure that their health care workers are aware of the virus and the disease it can cause and that when unexplained cases of pneumonia are identified, MERS CoV should be considered. If cases of MERS CoV are found, they should be reported to WHO under the terms of the International Health Regulations (2005).

So far, all cases of community acquired MERS CoV infection have been seen in the countries of the Middle East. All countries in this region should urgently intensify their surveillance efforts for infection by MERS-CoV. http://www.emro.who.int/press-releases/2013/corona-virus-who-saudi-arabia-mission.html

Health Affairs denied Batin province registration of any injury to the virus, "Corona" affiliate hospitals.

This came on the San media spokesman for the Department of Health Batin Governorate Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al-Anzi, who said, according to "above": all that were traded during the last few days rumors, and maintaining health affairs did not record any case of "Corona".

The users of social networking sites "August الواتس" and "Twitter" deliberated news for injured workers at King Khaled province Batin, infected with "Corona", after mixing to a patient in the hospital.

People were newly infected Corona, Saudi Arabia and suspicion of the existence of 124 cases in Jordan

People were newly infected Corona, Saudi Arabia and suspicion of the existence of 124 cases in Jordan


 The Ministry of Health Saudi Arabia recorded new cases of HIV Corona citizen Ahsa region at the age of 61 years and suffers failure كلويا and other chronic diseases, according to what reported, bringing the total number of people infected to 36 cases in the Kingdom.
The ministry also revealed for the deaths of 3 patients in the Eastern Province who infected announced in earlier and admitted to hospital last month aged 60, 58 and 24 years and all of them have also renal failure and other chronic diseases.
Thus, the final number of deaths rising death toll due to the virus to 21 cases.
And revealed the Jordanian Ministry of Health on Wednesday on suspicion of coronavirus disease, injuries to 124 people in Jordan.The ministry said in a statement it was sending samples from these patients to the center of American control of communicable diseases to ascertain their health status.
The statement stressed that he did not record any new case of the virus in Jordan since the death of two cases in a blue state hospital in April last year.

http://www.news.gov.kw/ndetail.aspx?nid=25580&cid=2

 

hatip Valerie Mansuy

The Intentional Concealment of the new Coronavirus

That's right, the true facts are being hidden from you by several govt's and international health agencies. Some of you aren't surprised, while others are completely unaware of it.. that's the idea right?

Even after almost a year, you are told it is not known what the actual source of the virus is!! Why is it you can't be told the answer to this basic question? Do you still believe they "just don't know"?

I see I am not the only one talking about this.
Here are a few examples for you.

Saudi Arabia continues to delay reporting of cases and scientific information. Saudi paperwork demands delay work to research to find MERS source: CDC http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Saudi+paperwork+demands+delay+work+research+find+MERS+source/8495078/story.html
Saudi Silence on Deadly MERS Virus Outbreak Frustrates World Health Experts
http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-silence-deadly-mers-virus-outbreak-frustrates-world-213000665.html
Thanks to Helen Branswell for those reports!

8 months and US CDC still waiting on their MERS-CoV samples from the KSA.
http://www.uq.edu.au/vdu/#080613

The U.S. has not been forthcoming with much news and what they have been doing is under the radar.
On May 29, 2013, the Secretary determined that
there is a significant potential for a public health emergency that has a significant potential to affect national security or the health and security of United States citizens living abroad and that involves Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). http://www.ahanews.com/ahanews/jsp/display.jsp?dcrpath=AHANEWS/AHANewsNowArticle/data/ann_060513_coronavirus&domain=AHANEWS
Yet.. That little news item never made it to the big screen. In fact, there has been no news on
the MSM at all lately.


While complaining about samples and timely information, they have actually contributed to the future spread of MERS, by authorizing a new open skies policy with the very country that is contaminated. Does this make any sense to you at this time??

United States and Saudi Arabia Sign Open Skies Air Transport Agreement

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

May 28, 2013

Today in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Ambassador James B. Smith and Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Director of the General Authority of Civil Aviation, Dr. Faisal bin Hamad Al-Sugair, signed an Open Skies air transport agreement.
The United States-Saudi Arabia Open Skies agreement will, following..

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/05/209995.htm


Really? An uncontrollable deadly virus is spreading globally from this country, and we start an open skies policy..as our CDC  and  WHO say they are waiting for samples and timely reporting of cases?? Doesn't really give you a sense of security, Huh? No cases in the U.S.?..WELL..just give it a few days.

We have many bases and armed forces in the middle east and Saudi Arabia, many thousands in fact soldiers and students  flying from there all day long.   Bahrain,  OMAN,  and other areas close to SA are denying cases, yet are only a few miles away from current outbreaks.  Italy walked back it's recent case count, after already declaring 10 were confirmed. All countries with current or recent cases are quickly denying anything is going on and don't want to raise any alarms, declare any travel alerts or even acknowledge the disease exists. Saudi Arabia denies any Filipino drs to come on their soil to help screen their workers, who willingly go there to act as servants.. if I were them, I would pull them all out immediately.

The situation is out of hand,  but is being covered up for oil, money, power, gov't continuity and greed. 
 A patent? Vaccine rights? Biological terrorism? Panic control? What excuse will be next on the list?
How long can you be told lies and kept in the dark? Apparently as long as you keep quiet about the lack of information you are getting. Keeping case counts and watching for clusters will not change the fact that we are on the edge of a new sars related virus outbreak, all the while most people in the world are oblivious to it.




Based on the information available, WHO does not advise special screening at points of entry with regard to this event nor does it currently recommend the application of any travel or trade restrictions. http://www.who.int/ith/updates/20130605/en/index.html



 

Saudi paperwork demands delay work to research to find MERS source: CDC

 

By Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press June 7, 2013 3:20 PM

TORONTO - Last October, scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control went to Saudi Arabia to help investigate a newly discovered virus that had killed one Saudi man and left another from Qatar gravely ill.
The CDC scientists are still waiting for a chance to test the samples they took during that investigation. Those specimens remain in Saudi Arabia, tied up in prolonged negotiations for a material transfer agreement the Saudi government has insisted the American agency sign.
The situation is frustrating the American scientists and impeding efforts to find the source of a virus which has now infected 55 people, killing 31 of them.
It's also ironic. Dr. Ziad Memish, the Saudi deputy health minister, has complained bitterly and publicly because Erasmus Medical Centre, the Dutch laboratory that first identified the MERS coronavirus, applied for a patent on its genetic sequence and has been requiring labs that want virus samples to sign a material transfer agreement, known in research lingo as an MTA.

"We are told at this point that we are close," Pallansch said. "So I do have some degree of hope that we will indeed have this completed in the near future."
Pallansch acknowledged the delay is frustrating. But he suggested the numerous outstanding questions about MERS are more pressing at this point, as public health agencies find themselves hampered in efforts to assess the risk posed by the new virus, a cousin of the coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak.
"We are certainly in discussion with WHO, the European CDC and other key partner public health agencies. And I think there is very little disagreement among all of those agencies in terms of what are the important epidemiologic and virologic questions that need to be addressed. So I think that we all are trying to find out how that information can be made more readily available," Pallansch said.
The fact that the CDC is still waiting to test samples collected last October came as a shock to an international health law expert who has been following the issues related to intellectual property claims on the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome virus, or MERS.
"The fact that negotiations are still going on about an MTA ... is very surprising," David Fidler, who teaches at Indiana University, said Friday when informed of the situation.
Fidler wrote an analysis on the coronavirus situation, entitled Who Owns MERS?, that was published Friday on the website of Foreign Affairs, the publication of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations.
In an interview, he noted Memish had complained at the recent World Health Assembly — the annual meeting of the World Health Organization — that the need for laboratories to sign an MTA with Erasmus Medical Centre was slowing down scientific research on the MERS virus.
"Well here we have apparently a Saudi MTA with the CDC, the negotiation of which is causing delays in terms of getting samples and getting scientific research done," he said, adding it raises questions about whether "decisions that Saudi Arabia has made are themselves one of the key obstacles to getting research done on the coronavirus."
"We need to dig into that as well as these other questions that have been thrown around."
It's not clear why the Saudi government is requiring the CDC to sign an MTA or whether it is making the same demand of other international laboratories with which it is partnering on MERS research. Memish did not reply Friday to an emailed request for an interview.
Nor did Dr. Ian Lipkin, a Columbia University scientist famed as a "virus hunter" who has been working with the Saudi government to try to find where the coronavirus hides in nature.
Lipkin, who is the director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, has had a team in Saudi Arabia on at least two occasions collecting samples for study. Lipkin did not reply to emailed questions Friday asking whether his lab too has had to sign an MTA with the Saudi government and whether, if he has, the process has been similarly protracted.
But even if Lipkin has been able to skip the MTA step, or to work through it more quickly, his efforts to isolate the source of the virus face another major hurdle, experts say.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture would move to block entry to any samples from Saudi Arabia that came from animals like sheep, goats or camels. That's because Saudi Arabia is not free of foot-and-mouth disease, a severe and highly contagious livestock disease. The U.S. prohibits importation of animals or animal byproducts from countries affected by foot-and-mouth disease.
That prohibition wouldn't apply to human samples from Saudi Arabia, or samples taken from bats, which are thought to be where the virus probably originates. But it's believed bats aren't infecting people directly; some intermediate animal species are probably playing a bridging role.
And specimens from the types of animals people have wondered about — goats and camels in particular — would fall under the USDA's ban, Pallansch said.
"I am aware that negotiations are underway in trying to find out how there can be an arrangement made for either the USDA involvement or some other approved way for the USDA to grant a permit," Pallansch said, expressing doubt that the agriculture department would budge. The WHO and several national public health agencies have expressed concern that the lack of information flow from Saudi Arabia is limiting the world's ability to assess the risk posed by MERS.
While infections have occurred in several other Middle Eastern countries — Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — and cases have been exported to Britain, France, Tunisia and Italy, the lion's share of cases have occurred in Saudi Arabia. According to the WHO's tally, 41 cases have occurred or emerged from the kingdom, and 26 of them have been fatal.


Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Saudi+paperwork+demands+delay+work+research+find+MERS+source/8495078/story.html#ixzz2Va6xYOAY