New MERS Cov virus + Hajj: Maybe not a recipe for disaster.

New MERS virus + Hajj: Maybe not a recipe for disaster.HT: Croft.

Via NBC News.com, a good report by Maggie Fox: New MERS virus + Hajj: Maybe not a recipe for disaster. Excerpt:

It seems like the perfect storm — millions of people from all over the world, descending on a few cities all in the space of a few weeks, just as a deadly and mysterious new virus is spreading. 

But global health officials say they are not especially worried that the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will help spread the MERS coronavirus when it starts next week. That’s even though this virus has demonstrated that it’s only a single flight away from any city in the world, and even though it’s an especially deadly virus. 

Why not? MERS hasn’t yet acquired the ability to spread easily from one person to another. 

And while U.S. health officials are keeping an eye out for it, they’re not especially concerned, either. “We think the risk is low,” says Dr. David Trump, state epidemiologist for Virginia. 

Watching out for the virus across the United States this year may fall mostly on the shoulders of state health officials such as Trump, as the government shutdown has closed most activities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Related:  WHO has published Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update. Excerpt:

WHO has been informed of an additional two laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in Saudi Arabia. 

The patients, both men, aged 55 and 78, were from Riyadh region. They became ill at the end of September 2013 and died in the beginning of October 2013. Both the patients were reported to have had no contact to a known laboratory-confirmed case with MERS-CoV. 

Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 138 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 60 deaths.