MERS Update

MERS
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South Korea’s MERS outbreak is a “wake-up call,” the WHO stated, but does not constitute a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” thanks to efforts to contain the illness. The country, meanwhile, reported its 20^th fatality and 8 new cases, according to Voice of America (http://www.voanews.com/content/south-korea-mers-outbreak-a-wake-up-call/2825740.html) .

Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota,
contributed to an AP update on MERS (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_MED_WHO_MERS_MEETING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-17-05-23-45) by asking why priority hasn’t been placed on developing a camel vaccine to stop transmission from young camels to humans. "If MERS shows up in the inner cities of one of the developing world megacities, like Lagos or Kinshasa, we will be in real trouble," he said. "We know there will be future outbreaks if MERS isn't stopped in the Middle East, but we are not very close to doing that now.”

In a no-nonsense assessment of the world’s reaction to MERS, Helen Branswell penned this aptly titled commentary for IRIN (http://www.irinnews.org/report/101638/mers-s-best-friend-is-ignorance-so-it-s-time-to-wise-up) :  “MERS’s best friend is ignorance, so it’s time to wise up.”

She asserts, “Over nearly three years, information about MERS has systematically either been hoarded, mishandled or perhaps not even collected at all.”

Combine that with the fact that attention in the past year understandably shifted to Ebola, and end up with little progress made to learn more about MERS which simmered on the back burner.