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WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

Biological

Closed. Please see Biological100
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update


Disease Outbreak News

19 September 2013 - WHO has been informed of an additional 18 new laboratory-confirmed cases including three deaths with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in Saudi Arabia.

The patients are reported from Hafar Al-Batin, Medina and Riyadh. Their ages ranging from three to 75 years old. These cases were announced by the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia on 1, 5, 8, 10 and 11 September 2013.

Additionally, in Qatar, a previously laboratory-confirmed patient with MERS-CoV died on 6 September 2013.

Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 132 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 58 deaths.

Based on the current situation and available information, WHO encourages all Member States to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns.

Health care providers are advised to maintain vigilance. Recent travellers returning from the Middle East who develop SARI should be tested for MERS-CoV as advised in the current surveillance recommendations.

Specimens from patients’ lower respiratory tracts should be obtained for diagnosis where possible. Clinicians are reminded that MERS-CoV infection should be considered even with atypical signs and symptoms, such as diarrhoea, in patients who are immunocompromised.

Health care facilities are reminded of the importance of systematic implementation of infection prevention and control (IPC). Health care facilities that provide care for patients suspected or confirmed with MERS-CoV infection should take appropriate measures to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to other patients, health care workers and visitors.

All Member States are reminded to promptly assess and notify WHO of any new case of infection with MERS-CoV, along with information about potential exposures that may have resulted in infection and a description of the clinical course. Investigation into the source of exposure should promptly be initiated to identify the mode of exposure, so that further transmission of the virus can be prevented.

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.

WHO has convened an Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations (IHR) to advise the Director-General on the status of the current situation. The Emergency Committee, which comprises international experts from all WHO Regions, unanimously advised that, with the information now available, and using a risk-assessment approach, the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) have not at present been met.

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2013_09_19/en/index.html

It appears FT's case 109 and 110 are included!
KSA-MOH announces recovery of two MERS Cov in Batin (26yo) and Riyadh (19yo)

Unfortunately no details!
 
Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

This WHO update is confusing to me. The Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (MOH) media statement of September 7 (link) is not referenced in this update. However, WHO must be counting these cases reported on September 7, since that is the only MOH report that identifies an infected individual with an age of three years.

By my count, the six MOH media statements between September 1 and September 11 identify 17 new cases and report five deaths. It is not clear from the MOH reports that each of these five deaths represents a previously reported case.

As Biological implies, further details on the individual cases would be helpful.

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Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

It appears that the Saudi Arabia government is not providing enough details to issue an informational report.
 
Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

hat tip Crof

September 19, 2013

MERS: Why is WHO so quiet about 18 cases?

Helen Branswell has tweeted her surprise at the brevity of of WHO's September 19 MERS update. I share her surprise. Compare that update with the last one, issued on September 7. Then compare that item with WHO's first comment on the novel coronavirus in the United Kingdom, issued almost exactly a year ago on September 23. Embarrassing, isn't it? With the first case we get floods of detail. With the September 7 update, we get the epidemiological equivalent of name, rank, and serial number. With today's update, WHO shrugs off 18 cases with details that the Brits would define by the technical term of sweet buggerall.
I've seen this before. In the early months of H5N1 in Indonesia, WHO's updates were full of detail. As the outbreaks and human cases continued, updates got shorter. Meanwhile, Indonesia's Ministry of Health shut up altogether about new H5N1 cases.
What we have here, folks, is not a failure to communicate. It's a refusal to communicate: a refusal first by the Saudis and second by WHO.
I understand WHO's need to stay on good terms with anxious governments, just as a physician would stay on good terms with the anxious family of a very sick patient. But a ministry of health is not an anxious relative—it's a colleague under stress, the doctor in charge of a difficult case. No physician likes to criticize a colleague. Everyone makes mistakes, and next time it could be the critic's turn.
Even so, the patient's welfare is more important than the colleague's. The Saudis are risking their patients, and ensuring many more patients to come, by their refusal to give the global health community all the details of their past and present MERS cases. WHO, meanwhile, is risking its own reputation and effectiveness by failing to demand and publicize more information from Minister Al-Rabeeah, Dr. Memish, and the other Saudi professionals.
(Dr. Memish, by the way, tells the Wall Street Journal he thinks his ministry is being very transparent just because it has a MERS website where its pious but uninformative reports are posted.)
When journals like Nature are reporting "Progress stalled on coronavirus" then WHO should recognize that in the active voice the headline would read "WHO stalls progress on coronavirus." And WHO should understand that with every day it stalls on MERS, it makes itself less able to deal with the next phase of the disease—not to mention the next outbreak of something new.


September 19, 2013 at 11:53 AM
 
Last edited:
Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

It should be taken into account the report delay and the fact that KSA MoH has posted in its website all the related cases' updates both in Arabic and English Language, so that for the WHO there are really very few things to add.

A new IHR(2005) advisory committee should be convened in the near future as scheduled earlier:

The WHO Secretariat will provide regular updates to the Members and will reconvene the Committee, in September, on a date to be determined. However, serious new developments may require an urgent re-convening of the Committee before then.

Source: WHO, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2013/mers_cov_20130717/en/index.html
 
Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

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Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

Last eighteen cases or some of are from clusters so more information will be most likely provided in journal articles!
 
Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

Last eighteen cases or some of are from clusters so more information will be most likely provided in journal articles!

Unfortunately, public health officials preparing for the future don't have the luxury of waiting for journal articles to be published to help them understand how this disease is spreading.
 
Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

Right on the mark Al.!
 
Re: WHO | Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 19 Sept 2013

Media Statements - MOH: ‘Three New Cases of Novel Coronavirus Recorded and Two Cases Passed Away’
MOH: ‘Three New Cases of Novel Coronavirus Recorded and Two Cases Passed Away’ 9/18/2013

Within the framework of the constant monitoring and epidemic surveillance of the novel Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced that three new cases have been recorded.

The first case is for a 75-year-old female citizen in Madinah, who was in contact with a confirmed case of this virus, and she had been suffering some chronic diseases. Then, she passed away, May Allah have mercy upon her.

The second case is for a 35-year-old male citizen in Madinah, who was in contact with a confirmed case of this virus, and he has been suffering some chronic diseases. He is currently at the ICU, receiving the proper treatment.

The third case is for a 83-year-old male citizen in Riyadh, who he had been suffering some chronic diseases. Then, he passed away, May Allah have mercy upon him.

http://www.moh.gov.sa/en/CoronaNew/PressReleases/Pages/Mediastatement-2013-09-18-002.aspx
 
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