September 27, 2012
A
Kashmiris Haj pilgrim hugs a relative as other pilgrims rest inside Haj
House before departing for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, in Srinagar
September 17, 2012. — Reuters pic
GENEVA, Sept 27 — The
World Health Organisation yesterday urged health workers everywhere to
report patients with acute respiratory infection who may have been in
Saudi Arabia or Qatar, following the discovery of a new virus from the
same family as SARS.
Saudi Arabia said it had taken precautions to prevent disease
spreading next month, when it expects over 2 million Muslims to flock to
the annual haj pilgrimage, than return home.
WHO put out a global alert on Sunday saying a new virus had infected a
49-year-old Qatari who had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, where
another man with an almost identical virus had died.
The Qatari remained critically ill in hospital in Britain as of
Tuesday, but the WHO said yesterday no new case of the new virus had
been reported.
“We’ve got things in place should things change, should the behaviour of the virus change,” spokesman Gregory Hartl said.
Tests showed that six people with respiratory infections in two
hospitals in Denmark did not have the new coronavirus, and at least five
of them had flu, Danish health officials said.
The new virus shares some of the symptoms of SARS, another
coronavirus, which emerged in China in 2002 and killed around a tenth of
8,000 people it infected worldwide.
So far, scientists do not know how contagious the new virus is, or whether or not it spreads by contact between people.
WHO’s clinical guidance to its 194 member states said health workers
should be alert to anyone with acute respiratory syndrome and requiring
hospitalisation who had been in the area where the virus was found or in
contact with a suspected or confirmed case within the previous 10 days.
WHO has not recommended any travel restrictions in connection with
the new virus, but said it was working closely with Saudi authorities on
health measures for the haj.
WHO said it was identifying a network of laboratories that could provide countries with expertise on coronaviruses.
“Though it is a very different virus from SARS, given the severity of
the two confirmed cases so far, WHO is engaged in further
characterising the novel coronavirus,” it said.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm
said that, based on the available information, “ECDC assesses the
current risk as low”. — Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment