The World Health Organization has set up special committee to deal with a possible Mers epidemic, ahead of pilgrimages in Saudi Arabia.
Although the virus so far is not highly viral, there have been concerns, due to cluster cases of demonstrated virality, in which one infected patient was able to pass on the disease fairly easily to people in contact. This pattern is very similar to the SARS epidemic of almost 10 years ago. In that instance, many patients did not spread the disease, while other were dubbed 'super carriers' people who spread the disease easily to many people. This indicated more than one strain, with one or more that possessed high virality. The same pattern seems to be repeating with MERS, with some cases being completely isolated, and others where the patient was able to infect people in the hospital or withing the family.
WHO flu expert Keiji Fukuda announced the forming of the committee. The containment of MERS must be conducted in the same fashion it was conducted for SARS. Although initial delays caused more than 8000 infections and 800 deaths, the disease was ultimately contained.
The WHO now is trying to replicate the same effort ahead of a possible epidemic of the disease, which is slowly advancing from the Arabian peninsula to other countries.
The committee will be composed of several experts who will draw up the containment plan.
The idea, Fukuda says, is to "make sure we can move as quickly as possible if we need to."
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