Who Holds Off Raising Mers Alert Level

[Ismail bhai]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]The World Health Organization on Wednesday held off from calling for travel restrictions related to the MERS virus striking hardest in Saudi Arabia, after emergency talks on the mystery illness.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]In a statement following a session of the UN health agency's emergency committee -- the rarity of which underlined global concerns about MERS -- the WHO said that there currently was no reason to step up its level of alert.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]"It is the unanimous decision of the committee that, with the information now available, and using a risk-assessment approach, the conditions for a public health emergency of international concern have not at present been met," the WHO said in a statement.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]The emergency meeting, which took the form of a telephone conference of officials from affected countries and global experts, was held in two parts, the first on Tuesday last week and the second on Wednesday.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]It came amid mounting concern about the potential impact of October's Islamic hajj pilgrimage, when millions of people from around the globe will head to and from Saudi Arabia.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]The WHO stuck to its stance that countries around the world should remain vigilant, monitoring any unusual patterns of respiratory infection, notably if patients have been to the Middle East.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]Saudi Arabia, however, has already indicated that at-risk individuals should consider staying away, in order to head off the spectre of a spread of the virus.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]On Saturday, health authorities in the kingdom urged elderly and chronically ill Muslims, as well as children and pregnant women, not to perform the annual pilgrimage.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]Officials in France, which has a large Muslim community, meanwhile said they had been informed that Saudi Arabia would not be issuing visas to such individuals.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]MERS, short for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, claimed its first victim in Saudi Arabia in June 2012.[/background][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]Since then, a total of 82 cases have been recorded worldwide, with 65 of them in the kingdom and most of the rest with a[/background][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]history of travel to the Middle East.[/background][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]Saudi Arabia also accounts for 38 of the globe's 45 confirmed MERS deaths.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]Experts are struggling to understand MERS, which does not appear to spread easily but which has raised major concern because of the high fatality rate -- currently almost 55 percent.[/background][/size][/font][/color]

[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]The disease is a cousin of SARS, which erupted in Asia in 2003 and went on to infect a recorded 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.[/background][/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]Like SARS, MERS is thought to have jumped from animals to humans, and shares the former's flu-like symptoms -- but differs in that it causes kidney failure.[/background][/size][/font][/color]


[color=#000000][font=Arial, sans-serif][size=3][background=transparent]Read more: [url="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/07/17/who-holds-off-raising-mers-alert-level-as-muslim-hajj-looms/#ixzz2ZnDkDYfU"]http://www.foxnews.c.../#ixzz2ZnDkDYfU[/url][/background][/size][/font][/color]

[url="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-18/india/40656807_1_syndrome-coronavirus-mers-haj-pilgrimage"]http://articles.time...-haj-pilgrimage[/url]