MERS: Silence in the Gulf.

MERS: Silence in the Gulf.(Croft).

Click through to HAAD News, the English website of the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi, and you'll see the most recent news item is dated June 17. Yet The National, a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, published a report on July 19 about four local doctors who'd contracted MERS. WHO reported the same cases on July 18. Meanwhile, the Saudi Ministry of Health reports only when it has new cases, when it also slips in any "passed away" cases. Other Gulf states' media are also silent in the face of the new threat.
In a sense, this is understandable. Unlike flu bloggers, few people like to dwell on bad news, and would rather not deal with it unless they have to. For governments, disease poses a threat far worse than mere illness—embarrassment. Hence the Cuban government's silence about cholera (see below).
But surely these governments' media experts (to say nothing of their public health experts) must be telling them this strategy is counterproductive. It only inspires skepticism in their publics about the competence and concerns of their rulers.
By contrast, consider the Centre for Public Health in Hong Kong, a continent away from the Gulf but studiously reporting every suspected MERS patient who turns up...and also keeping Hong Kongers aware of the confirmed cases in the Gulf.
Apart from informing its constituents, the CHP is also building credibility with every report. I like to poke affectionate fun at the CHP because it tells us about every outbreak of sniffles in every kindergarten in the region. But because it takes pains with the small stuff, a serious alarm from CHP will command instant public attention.
The Gulf strategy has another drawback: It defines MERS in terms of deaths and recoveries, not in terms of the public-health response to it. This turns the disease into a series of shocks, and conditions us to wait anxiously in the pauses for the next death.
If instead the Gulf states (especially Saudi Arabia) were releasing news about the condition of the patients, the research efforts being made to learn about the disease, and what's being learned, the death reports would be incidents in an ongoing story—not the bombshells they now are.

Earlier this month, the ministry issued health rules and regulations for Haj and Umrah pilgrims for the current year in the wake of an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). These included postponing Haj and Umrah rituals by those above the age of 65 as well as chronic patients, including those suffering from diseases of heart and kidney, and also those having respiratory problems. Pregnant women and children below the age of 12 were also discouraged from performing the rituals at least for the time being.