Why MERS virus is so scary
updated 12:56 PM EDT, Fri May 31, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- The head of WHO said MERS CoV virus found in Saudi Arabia threatens "the entire world"
- Laurie Garrett: It's alarming that of 49 cases, 27 -- that's 52% -- have died
- Garrett: The virus related to SARS, and scientists worry it could spread as fast
- MERS emerged in a difficult region, she says, and threatens Syrian refugees
Editor's note: Laurie Garrett is senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.
(CNN) -- The head of the World Health Organization warned the world this week of a new virus, awkwardly dubbed MERS-CoV, found in Saudi Arabia.
"Looking at the overall
global situation, my greatest concern right now is the novel
coronavirus," Margaret Chan said, calling it "a threat to the entire
world."
"We understand too little
about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential
threat," the director general said in her closing speech to the 66th
session of the World Health Assembly. "Any new disease that is emerging
faster than our understanding is never under control.
"These are alarm bells
and we must respond. The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any
single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself."
Laurie Garrett
With just 49 cases of the
new disease reported since June 2012, it may seem puzzling that Chan
named the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus -- MERS CoV or
MERS for short -- the greatest threat to world health today.
But Hong Kong-born Chan
can be forgiven a strong reaction. After all, she managed the response
to SARS there in 2003, and MERS is a close genetic cousin. At least
8,000 people in 30 countries contracted SARS in 2003; 774 died of the
disease.
No doubt her sense of
urgency also stems from the apparently high mortality rate: To date, 27
of the 49 people who have caught the disease have perished, or 52%.
Although the majority of illnesses have been in the Saudi Arabia, cases
have emerged in seven countries.
Similarities between the
SARS and MERS viruses are more than genetic. Both cause acute
respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, and trigger reactions in the
human immune system that are so severe, organs throughout the body are
devastated -- collateral damage in an overly vigorous battle with the
microbes. Both viruses spread between people through close contact,
putting family caregivers and health care workers at risk for infection.
Growing alarm over new virus
MERS virus linked to Middle East
Tracking a deadly virus
In April, for example, according to a report in the British medical journal The Lancet, a French man who had traveled to Dubai fell
ill with the disease in France, although it wasn't diagnosed
immediately. Another patient who shared the first man's hospital room
caught the disease. The first man died on May 28; the second remains in
intensive care.
A new report in the New England Journal of Medicine offers
a glimpse of the depth of mystery shrouding MERS. A team of Saudi
Ministry of Health researchers describe a November outbreak in a Riyadh
urban household of 28 extended family members, four of whom -- all men
-- contracted MERS.
The cluster of cases in
this family presents a list of mysteries: Why were all the sick and dead
men? With 28 people in this three-building urban household, why were
these four infected, and the other 24 spared? The family lived in a big
city, had no animals, ate supermarket food and had jobs that offered no
contact with the virus. How did they catch MERS?
Until researchers can
determine what animal is the natural host of the virus, and how MERS
spreads from the host to humans, each new outbreak is dangerous and
mysterious. The science is still unfolding.
Meanwhile, the WHO and
world health community watch, anxiously, recalling how swiftly the SARS
outbreak that started in southern China in December 2002 exploded a
month later across Asia, Canada, and on, eventually hitting 30
countries.
Sadly, resources for
confronting such outbreaks have decreased since the 2008 financial
crisis, and MERS has emerged in one of the most difficult regions in the
world. Were the virus to reach any of the refugee camps that house more
than 2 million Syrian refugees, a genuine pandemic could ensue.
No comments:
Post a Comment