WHO convenes emergency meeting on MERS - Full report.HT: Crofs.
Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organisation, said yesterday that she had decided to convene the agency's emergency committee, for just the second time, to help protect travellers to the annual Haj pilgrimage from the coronavirus that has killed 38 people in Saudi Arabia.
The 15-member committee, which includes the deputy health minister of Saudi Arabia, Ziad Memish, and health officials from six other predominantly Muslim countries, will meet via teleconference today to decide whether the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (Mers-CoV) represents a public health emergency of international concern.
Ms Chan last convened the committee to battle the 2009 global flu pandemic.
"Millions of people are going to Mecca and to Medina - we cannot stop that and we should not stop that," said Ms Chan at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva.
"We need to say that it's OK to go, but these are the measures that governments must take."
The previously unknown virus has infected 80 people and killed 45 worldwide, according to the WHO. While most cases have been detected in Saudi Arabia, infections in the UK, France, Germany and Italy have sparked concern of a global outbreak similar to the 2003 Sars epidemic.
Scientists still don't know where the new virus came from or how it is spreading.
That prompted Ms Chan to say at the WHO's annual World Health Assembly in May that the virus is her "greatest concern".
While the pace of new infections has slowed, Ms Chan said she wanted to be prepared in case it returns.
"Am I still worried? The answer is yes," she said. "Eventually I hope the disease will burn out. But what if it doesn't? We should always have plan A, plan B and plan C."
Recent guidelines
On 5 July, WHO published a guideline for investigation of MERS-CoV cases. It provides recommendations for early case investigation including further case finding, surveillance enhancements, and studies that need to be done around new cases.On 3 July, WHO published revised case definitions for MERS-CoV confirmed and probable cases based on new epidemiological and clinical information. The document also contains recommendations on further evaluation for cases with inconclusive tests and asymptomatic infections.
On 27 June, WHO published interim surveillance recommendations for human infection with MERS-CoV. The two major changes include a stronger recommendation for the use of lower respiratory tract specimens in addition to nasopharyngeal swabs for diagnostic testing and a longer observation period for contacts of cases.
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