Even as the Centre asked the states to increase surveillance and keep a close vigil on those travelling to Gulf nations, following the spread of SARS-like West Asia coronavirus, experts in the World Health Organisation (WHO) decided not to declare it a public health emergency of International concern.
In an emergency committee convened by WHO’s director-general under the international health regulations (IHR) to assess the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome – coronavirus (MERS-CoV) situation on Wednesday it was noticed that conditions for a public health emergency of international concern have not yet been met. Director-general Dr Margaret Chan therefore agreed with the committee’s advice that “although the situation is of great concern, it does not constitute a public health emergency at this time”.
According to the experts the virus is new and has been around since 2012. It has been really quite severe in those that it has infected, with the fatality been 55%. The novel virus has been persistent in West Asia and continues to cause cases. Over the past three months, a steady number of cases has been seen each month. Experts noted that the virus when infected could cause very serious disease, with many people ending up on respirators and many dying. “It’s also possible that this virus could spread further in the future”.
“This is also an infection for which we don’t have any specific vaccines or specific medicines right now, so the way we take care of these people is through general medical care. In looking at all of these things, this is a situation which has been of some concern to WHO,” said WHO’s Dr Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general for health security and the environment.
The emergency committee also went on to highlight that there are several areas where countries and WHO should pay attention to, and that it should take steps both to strengthen the preparation of countries. While the experts felt that its not travel they were concern about, the mass gathering are area of worry. Therefore, for those visiting the Haj and to the Umrah and to pilgrims visiting Saudi Arabia-experts said that people who have certain serious medical conditions, the ones who have been getting infected with this MERS virus should seek medical counselling or guidance from their physicians about whether this is a good time for them to travel or not.