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Shay Wilinski works in the Microbiology Lab at
Community Hospital, where a patient with the first confirmed U.S. case of
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is in isolation, in Munster, Indiana, May 5,
2014 (Reuters / Jim Young)
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As the deadly MERS virus
with no vaccine caused two more fatalities in Saudi Arabia, bringing the death
toll in the country to 385, an international team of health experts was
dispatched to look into the cases. The news of two more deaths was issues by
Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry on Saturday.
Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome, or MERS, has infected 902 people in the country since it was first
identified in 2012, though 490 people who contracted the disease have
recovered. Some 57 people have
contracted MERS in the kingdom since the start of February.
An international team of
UN human and animal health experts flew into Saudi Arabia on Friday to
investigate the recent surge. A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization
team said February has seen what appears to be one of the highest numbers of
cases since the virus first emerged in humans.
"We are all very
aware of this surge in cases," one of an 11-strong international MERS
expert team, the WHO's Fadela Chaib, said in Ryad.
"Although this is
still a small outbreak compared to last year, we still need to understand more
about what is happening," she told Reuters.
First identified in
humans in 2012, in Saudi Arabia, MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same
family as the one that caused a deadly outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome) in China in 2003. Initial scientific studies have linked
it in Saudi Arabia to camels.
MERS is a respiratory
disease that can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. A typical case of MERS
is said to involve fever, coughing and shortness of breath. It can cause
respiratory failure that requires mechanical ventilation and support in
intensive care. Up to four of every 10 MERS sufferers have died.
The virus appears to
cause more severe disease in people with weakened immune systems, the elderly
and those with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, and chronic lung
disease. It’s not yet fully understood how people become infected.
In some cases, the virus
appears to pass from an infected person to another person in close contact, as
has previously happened among family members, patients, and healthcare workers.
Recently, there have been an increased number of reports of healthcare
associated infections, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Saudi Arabia has been
criticized by WHO and others for taking time to examine and track down the
source of the MERS virus, and to find out how it infects people and passes from
one person to another.
"They [the Saudi
authorities] are making progress, but there is a lot more work to do,"
Chaib declared.
The
WHO said earlier this month it was concerned about MERS and its potential to
spread internationally.
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