SARS-Like MERS Virus Spreads to New Countries

[Omaha Steve]

Source: ABC News

By GILLIAN MOHNEY

Cases of the MERS Coronavirus have significantly increased in the last few months, and in recent weeks there have been reports of the virus in new countries including Egypt, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, leaving officials struggling to figure out why infections have increased.

The MERS Coronavirus, which stands for Middle Eastern Respiratory Coronavirus, was first identified in late 2012 and causes acute respiratory illness, shortness of breath and in severe cases kidney failure. The virus is related to the SARS virus and the common cold.

There have been 350 cases and more than 100 deaths reported worldwide from the virus, although the World Health Organization (WHO) has laboratory-confirmed only 254 cases with 93 deaths. Most of the reported infections have come from Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

While public health experts have been tracking the disease for nearly two years, in recent weeks health officials are reporting a sharp rise in cases. The WHO reported at least 78 confirmed cases since the beginning of the year, and that diagnosed cases sharply increased in mid-March.

FULL story and video at link.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/sars-mers-virus-spreads-countries/story?id=23491100

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See How The MERS Coronavirus Affects the Body: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/fullpage/mers-coronavirus-infographic-abcnews-19315579

[leftyohiolib]

1. the downside of globalizing

[Louisiana1976]

4. +1!

[Bragi]

7. What's the upside? /nt

[hedgehog]

2. MERS is no way as well known as Ebola, but I find it much more worrying.

Despite the image of doctors in moon suits, Ebola is hard to spread if Western medical/sanitation standards are kept ( no exposure to blood or fluids, no re-use of needles, etc) MERS, on the other hand, is hard to contain.

[Chemisse]

3. I'm just hoping that high fatality rate is due to under reporting of mild cases.

[greiner3]

5. Uhhh;

Did anyone else catch that at first the link states;

" The MERS Coronavirus, which stands for Middle Eastern Respiratory Coronavirus, was first identified in late 2012 and causes acute respiratory illness, shortness of breath and in severe cases kidney failure. The virus is related to the SARS virus and the common cold."

But the next paragraph states;

"" There have been 350 cases and more than 100 deaths reported worldwide from the virus, although the World Health Organization (WHO) has laboratory-confirmed only 254 cases with 93 deaths. Most of the reported infections have come from Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates."

If you take even the first set of figures, the rate of death is 28%!!!!!!!!!!!

So is the article poorly written or is ABC trying to downplay the deadly seriousness of this virus?

[hedgehog]

6. lots of people think the WHO over-reacted to SARS and that the media

accounts were way overblown. The fact is, SARS was an example of public health agencies successfully working across borders to prevent an historical pandemic.

It's like fighting terrorism - lots of people don't believe there is such a hazard until the day prevention efforts fail.