Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.zawya.com/story/MERS_virus_Scientists_in_KSA_still_hunting_source-ZAWYA20141122042907/
Arab News
MERS virus: Scientists still hunting source
Nov 22 2014
Tighter infection controls in hospitals have contributed to a significant drop in Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) cases in Saudi Arabia, but a senior health official warns that sporadic primary cases will still pop up...
...Researchers have not yet traced the source of a mysterious camel virus, that has killed at least 346 people in the Kingdom.
The lack of scientific evidence about how camels contract the virus, which causes MERS, echoes wider concerns about the threat posed to human health by animal-borne pathogens, including the Ebola virus.
"Coming into close contact with the nasal secretions of camels is a major risk factor," said Tariq Madani, head of the scientific advisory board of the Health Ministry's Command and Control Center (CCC) set up in June to handle the outbreak.
Yet studies of both camels and people infected with MERS in Saudi Arabia have given preliminary results that are helping authorities curb the disease's spread, according to the scientist overseeing the work.
"Until now the camels we have examined have proven to be negative -- and this is really very unexpected," Madani was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.
"The main transmission is actually human to human," Madani said...
...Asked whether this suggested the camels were being infected within Saudi Arabia's borders, Madani said it was too early to reach conclusions, but said tests on imported camels will continue alongside studies of wild animals such as bats and monkeys that may also be harboring the virus...
Arab News
MERS virus: Scientists still hunting source
Nov 22 2014
Tighter infection controls in hospitals have contributed to a significant drop in Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) cases in Saudi Arabia, but a senior health official warns that sporadic primary cases will still pop up...
...Researchers have not yet traced the source of a mysterious camel virus, that has killed at least 346 people in the Kingdom.
The lack of scientific evidence about how camels contract the virus, which causes MERS, echoes wider concerns about the threat posed to human health by animal-borne pathogens, including the Ebola virus.
"Coming into close contact with the nasal secretions of camels is a major risk factor," said Tariq Madani, head of the scientific advisory board of the Health Ministry's Command and Control Center (CCC) set up in June to handle the outbreak.
Yet studies of both camels and people infected with MERS in Saudi Arabia have given preliminary results that are helping authorities curb the disease's spread, according to the scientist overseeing the work.
"Until now the camels we have examined have proven to be negative -- and this is really very unexpected," Madani was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.
"The main transmission is actually human to human," Madani said...
...Asked whether this suggested the camels were being infected within Saudi Arabia's borders, Madani said it was too early to reach conclusions, but said tests on imported camels will continue alongside studies of wild animals such as bats and monkeys that may also be harboring the virus...