Saudi Gazette report

ABHA – Since it first appeared in 2012, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been attacking people in Saudi Arabia and no vaccination has been developed so far against the disease.

The Health Ministry has expressed its concern over MERS-CoV and called on citizens and residents to take precautions against the deadly virus, which has killed several people in the past years.

Coronavirus is active throughout the year, not only in winter, but the number of cases is likely to increase during the cold season, especially after birth of camels that are prone to contract the disease, the ministry said in a statement.

Speaking about the delay in discovering an effective medicine to fight the coronavirus, the ministry said there was some kind of progress in making an effective vaccination.

“A number of vaccines have been developed and they are now in the experimental stage,” it added. “Tests on one vaccine were encouraging but it requires more studies,” the ministry pointed out.

The ministry believes that camels are the virus’ main carriers and this has been confirmed after conducting tests on different animals.

“Multiple studies have shown that a large number of camels in the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf and Africa have antigens in the blood, indicating they were infected by the virus in some stages of their life,” the ministry said.

It said live virus was isolated from the respiratory system of the animals, especially young camels. “The virus found in camels inside the Kingdom is different from the one found in Africa. This difference may explain the variation in the virus’s ability to pass from camels to humans.”

Between June 16 and 23, the national IHR Focal Point of Saudi Arabia reported seven additional cases of coronavirus infection, including two deaths. It also reported four deaths among previously reported cases.

The Ministry of Health is evaluating each case and their contacts and is still implementing the measures to limit further human-to-human transmission and bring these outbreaks to a control.

MERS-CoV causes severe human infections resulting in high mortality rates. It has demonstrated the ability to transmit between humans. So far, the observed non-sustained human-to-human transmission has occurred mainly in the health care settings.

The notification of additional cases does not change the overall risk assessment.

WHO expects that additional cases of MERS-CoV infection will be reported from the Middle East, and that cases will continue to be exported to other countries by individuals who might acquire the infection after exposure to animals or animal products.

“Based on the current situation and available information, WHO encourages all member states to continue their surveillance for acute respiratory infections and to carefully review any unusual patterns,” the WHO said.

Infection prevention and control measures are critical to prevent the possible spread of MERS-CoV in healthcare facilities. It is not always possible to identify patients with MERS-CoV early because like other respiratory infections, the early symptoms of MERS-CoV are non-specific.

Therefore, healthcare workers should always apply standard precautions consistently with all patients, regardless of their diagnosis. Droplet precautions should be added to the standard precautions when providing care to patients with symptoms of acute respiratory infection; contact precautions and eye protection should be added when caring for probable or confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection; airborne precautions should be applied when performing aerosol generating procedures, it added.