WHO calls for “urgent and immediate action” against coronavirus

Concern about the spread of coronavirus first detected in the Arabian peninsula in 2012, which in recent days has made the jump to the United States with two imported by travelers, “has increased significantly “. This has been acknowledged Wednesday by the committee of experts selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency meeting to advise the international body to take action against the pathogen. Since its appearance has claimed 141 deaths, 30% of those infected.

In any case, the circumstances are not yet in place to declare a state of public health emergency of international concern, yes an alert occurred 10 days ago after another meeting of experts from WHO, this time before the proliferation of polio virus. In fact, while a worsening of the situation regarding the coronavirus is collected, the lack of evidence of sustained transmission between humans is also emphasized.

The group met on Wednesday said both WHO and the international community need to take ” immediate steps ” to improve the prevention and control of infection, which is ” particularly urgent in the countries concerned.” But also calls for a deeper knowledge of this infectious agent.

Coronaviruses are a type of virus that owe their name to the tips they have on their surface. Most people become infected with any of them throughout his life, without major effects mild to moderate respiratory problems in the upper airways (nose, larynx, pharynx). But this coronavirus is totally different from those described until 2012, in both humans and animals. It is responsible for the so-called Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS -CoV), which causes coughing, fever, and in the worst cases, pneumonia ending in death of the infected. “You should practice environmental, serological and animal studies to better understand the epidemiology of the agent, their associated risk factors and to better assess the effectiveness of control measures,” says the document.

Another major concern of the experts consulted by WHO is the possible spread of cases particularly vulnerable because of its relative proximity to the focus of infection and limited health resources countries, such as sub-Saharan Africa.

The coronavirus has claimed 141 deaths among the 495 affected (in 19 countries) recorded since its inception, according to data collected on 6 May by the European Centre for Disease Control. These figures show a 30% mortality associated with the pathogen.

Thus the pattern of infection – barely known to have a low – transmission capacity as the alleged animal reservoir from which infects people is unknown. Being from the Arabian Peninsula, is estimated to jump to humans from camels or sheep. In fact, the most affected are citizens of countries like Arabia (411), United Arab Emirates (49), Qatar (7) Jordan (6) or Kuwait (3).

There are also imported cases of people who passed through these countries and developed the disease around the Middle East trip. Among them are three UK patients (two died), two German and two French (with one fatality for each country).

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Posted by Nadeem Bajwa on May 16 2014. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.