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Health officials develop plan to contain MERS
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More than 100 public health officials recently met at WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office in Cairo to discuss ways to detect, control and treat emerging cases of Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome, or MERS, coronovirus, according to a WHO press release.
The officials agreed to standardize protocols to quickly report new MERS cases with as much detail as possible, including providing information about contact histories, clinical care and treatment outcomes. Health officials also agreed to improvements in surveillance, communications, preparations for mass gatherings, clinical management of cases, laboratory diagnostics, infection control and International Health Regulations reporting.
“At the moment, we have an important window where cases have still been relatively few and human transmission is relatively limited,” said Keiji Fukuda, MD, WHO assistant director-general for health security and the environment. “We need to exploit this chance to agree and implement the best public health measures possible across the board … in so doing, we stand the best chance of controlling this virus before it spreads further.”
As of June 26, a total of 77 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with MERS and 40 deaths have been reported to WHO since September.
The following countries have been affected by MERS: Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Laboratory-confirmed cases also have been reported in France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and the United Kingdom.
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.