The last such meeting took place in December 2013.
The situation is becoming worrying. While new cases of Coronavirus Mers (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) were detected recently in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to hold an emergency meeting again: “Tuesday the emergency committee will have a meeting on the Seas coronavirus, “WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said during a press briefing in Geneva. “They have already met 4 times” since the start of the crisis, and had agreed to meet again. The last such meeting took place in December 2013.
This announcement comes as a first case of coronavirus has been detected in Lebanon. “On Thursday afternoon, a patient was diagnosed with the Mers coronavirus while being treated in a hospital,” said the Minister of Health. He said the patient’s state of health improved and he was able to leave the hospital.
According to the latest WHO report published on Wednesday (link in English), since September 2012, 489 cases of the Mers coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide, including 126 deaths.
Cases of infection have been identified in several countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and the United States, but the majority of those affected had traveled or worked in Saudi Arabia recently. Also according to the WHO, 406 cases have been detained in this country, and 101 people have died from the coronavirus.
Moreover, the French authorities have decided to react: the French site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thus advises against “the elderly, those suffering from chronic illness, pregnant women and children, to make the small pilgrimage (oumra) and the great pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca this year” in order to avoid spreading the virus.
The coronavirus is a “cousin” of SARS, more dangerous but less contagious, with a death rate of 65% against 8% for SARS. A patient who is the victim suffers from a lung infection, fever, cough and severe breathing difficulties. The only difference is that Mers also causes acute kidney failure. According to several studies, the spread of this virus is caused by camels.
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