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Editor, Senior Moderator
Foreign doctors, nurses in Saudi Arabia could take MERS global
By Sharon Begley
NEW YORK Sun May 18, 2014 8:31am EDT
(Reuters) - The biggest risk that Middle East Respiratory Syndrome will become a global epidemic, ironically, may lie with globe-trotting healthcare workers.
From Houston to Manila, doctors and nurses are recruited for lucrative postings in Saudi Arabia, where MERS was first identified in 2012. Because the kingdom has stepped up hiring of foreign healthcare professionals in the last few years, disease experts said, there is a good chance the MERS virus will hitch a ride on workers as they return home.
"This is how MERS might spread around the world," said infectious disease expert Dr Amesh Adalja of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
It can take five to 14 days for someone infected with MERS to show symptoms, more than enough time for a contagious person to fly to the other side of the world without being detectable. Healthcare workers "are at extremely high risk of contracting MERS compared to the general public," Adalja said.
...
About one-third of the MERS cases treated in hospitals in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah were healthcare workers, according to the World Health Organization.
...
"There is not much public health authorities or border agents can do,? said infectious disease expert Dr Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota. "Sure, they can ask people, ?did you work in a healthcare facility in Saudi Arabia,? but if the answer is yes, then what?"
Healthcare workers are best placed to understand the MERS risk, Osterholm said, and "there should be a heightened awareness among them of possible MERS symptoms."
...
About 15 percent of physicians working in the kingdom are American or European, and some 40 percent of nurses are Filipino or Malaysian, according to estimates by recruiters and people who have worked in hospitals there.
The majority of U.S.-trained medical staff are on one- or two-year contracts, which results in significant churn as workers rotate in and out of Saudi medical facilities.
...
(Reporting by Sharon Begley; additional reporting by Manuel P. Mogato in Manila and Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai,; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Ross Colvin)
Full text;
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/18/us-health-mers-workers-idUSKBN0DY0BF20140518
By Sharon Begley
NEW YORK Sun May 18, 2014 8:31am EDT
(Reuters) - The biggest risk that Middle East Respiratory Syndrome will become a global epidemic, ironically, may lie with globe-trotting healthcare workers.
From Houston to Manila, doctors and nurses are recruited for lucrative postings in Saudi Arabia, where MERS was first identified in 2012. Because the kingdom has stepped up hiring of foreign healthcare professionals in the last few years, disease experts said, there is a good chance the MERS virus will hitch a ride on workers as they return home.
"This is how MERS might spread around the world," said infectious disease expert Dr Amesh Adalja of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
It can take five to 14 days for someone infected with MERS to show symptoms, more than enough time for a contagious person to fly to the other side of the world without being detectable. Healthcare workers "are at extremely high risk of contracting MERS compared to the general public," Adalja said.
...
About one-third of the MERS cases treated in hospitals in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah were healthcare workers, according to the World Health Organization.
...
"There is not much public health authorities or border agents can do,? said infectious disease expert Dr Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota. "Sure, they can ask people, ?did you work in a healthcare facility in Saudi Arabia,? but if the answer is yes, then what?"
Healthcare workers are best placed to understand the MERS risk, Osterholm said, and "there should be a heightened awareness among them of possible MERS symptoms."
...
About 15 percent of physicians working in the kingdom are American or European, and some 40 percent of nurses are Filipino or Malaysian, according to estimates by recruiters and people who have worked in hospitals there.
The majority of U.S.-trained medical staff are on one- or two-year contracts, which results in significant churn as workers rotate in and out of Saudi medical facilities.
...
(Reporting by Sharon Begley; additional reporting by Manuel P. Mogato in Manila and Zeba Siddiqui in Mumbai,; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Ross Colvin)
Full text;
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/18/us-health-mers-workers-idUSKBN0DY0BF20140518