the MERS virus
Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases, NIH
a panel established by the World health Organization (wHO) decided today that the new coronavirus that has been infecting people in the Middle east is "very worrying", but do not constitute "international scope of emergency public health. "The new pathogen, known as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus has sickened 82 people and killed 45 of them so far.
The emergency committee which can called public health experts, including WHO established on July 5, met for the first time last week. the 15-member panel was instructed to keep an eye on MERS and whether she had sufficiently serious risks to justify the WHO recommends that governments restrict travel or take other measures to prevent spread of MERS. under a global agreement known as the International health Regulations, emergency statement of the panel give WHO the power to issue recommendations on the MERS treatment.
after the convening by phone for 4 hours this afternoon, the group decided unanimously that the conditions for an emergency of international scope n has not been reached so far public health.
committee decided that "it was not the time to go ahead with such a declaration, but to follow the situation very closely" said Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director general for health security and environment, told a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland. In part, the decision reflects the negative effects of an emergency declaration could also, he noted. "You want to make these statements when they are proportionate to the event."
The panel made the right call, said Mike Osterholm, director of the Center for Research on Infectious Diseases and politics at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. But he fears that some people may take the decision to say that there is nothing to fear. "We have this unfortunate nomenclature that was given to us," he said Science Insider. "And it's either yes or no."
If the panel had said yes to a declaration of emergency, however, it also faces the risk of losing public confidence if MERS failed to become a serious global health problem, he notes. "If nothing had happened, people would have said you unnecessarily scared us, we can not believe you. And credibility is the number one asset in public health."
Osterholm said that WHO needs to work on a better way of highlighting a possible danger without calling emergency. "What we are really talking about here are not the evidence or data, but how can we describe this world," he said. "And there is plenty of room between the two" do not worry "and" on the brink of disaster. ""
Today's decision also "raises questions and creates potentially confusing messages to WHO," according to David Fidler, an international law expert and Global Health at the University Indiana, Bloomington. He noted that the International Health Regulations define a public health emergency of international concern as an "extraordinary event" that "constitute [s] a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease" and "potentially require [s] coordinated international response. "We do not know what conditions MERS did not meet the eyes of the emergency committee, said Fidler." Does MERS not an extraordinary event? It does not constitute a risk to public health to other states by the international spread? It does not require a coordinated international response? "
In addition to this, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan called MERS" a threat to the world "at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in May . "This is a dramatic statement," Fidler said. How that statement squares with today's decision are unclear, he said. "WHO could do everyone a great service by being more transparent . "
unless there are serious developments, the committee will not convene again until September, WHO announced. Fukuda also said that although the organization does not provide not recommending travel restrictions, he is preparing advice for travelers would be made public in the coming days.
the researchers, meanwhile, continue to investigate MERS. So far it n has not been able to find the "animal reservoir" of the virus (the species it infects other than humans) nailed or how people are infected and how mild or asymptomatic infections, there are in the region.
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