WHO emergency meeting in Geneva on MERS

The Members of the Committee discussed the information provided. Based on current information, the Committee indicated that the seriousness of the situation had increased in terms of public health impact, but that there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission. As a result of their deliberations, the Committee concluded that the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) have not yet been met.

However, the Committee emphasized that its concern about the situation had significantly increased. Their concerns centred on the recent sharp rise in cases; systemic weaknesses in infection prevention and control, as well as gaps in critical information; and possible exportation of cases to especially vulnerable countries.

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My professional opinion?  They are "whistling past the graveyard" on MERS and bowing to political pressure from KSA and Islamic states who have citizens intent on the Hajj in 2014.  

Look what the world went through with SARS....that virus exploded onto the world stage, halting commercial shipping from Asia (container boats from China were held offshore for weeks while the infection was being contained),  the evolution of "super spreaders" helped spike the H2H transmission in days, etc. 

I'd like to say this to WHO:  "Look, this is a corona virus of animal origin.  We've been down this path with nearly disastrous results.  There is no vaccine, no treatment, no cure, so patients either live or die (30% CFR).  

We are well past the point of "concern" and should be preparing for concrete steps to shut this down."

A World Health Organization committee finds no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of the deadly coronavirus, but recommends immediate action to prevent further spread.

By Tracy Vence | May 15, 2014

Travelers in New York City's John F. Kennedy International AirportFLICKR, DANIELOn Monday (May 12), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the second lab-confirmed case of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in the country: a health-care worker who lived in Saudi Arabia and traveled through five international airports before arriving in Orlando earlier this month. The very next day, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened the fifth meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee concerning MERS-CoV to discuss the potential public health threat.

The committee, along with three expert advisers, concluded that while the “seriousness of the situation [has] increased in terms of public health impact, . . . there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission” at this time, according to a WHO statement.

Beyond Saudi Arabia, the country in which MERS-CoV is thought to have originated and where most of the cases of infection and fatalities have occurred to date, the U.S. this month (May 2) joined Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, the Philippines, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates on the list of countries that have now reported lab-confirmed cases of the infection.

Cautioning against the possible exportation of the coronavirus to other vulnerable nations, the Emergency Committee urged WHO member states to take steps to improve their infection prevention and control measures, to enhance public awareness of MERS-CoV, and to “initiate and accelerate critical investigations, including case-control, serological, environmental, and animal studies, to better understand the epidemiology, especially risk factors and assess the effectiveness of control measures,” according to the WHO statement.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the Transportation Security Administration is posting MERS warning signs at 22 major U.S. airports at the CDC’s request. “The warning notes that the risk to most travelers is low but that people who get sick within 14 days of being in the Arabian Peninsula should call a doctor,” the Tribune noted.

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