The World Health Organisation summoned 80 officials and doctors in Cairo to examine ways of tackling Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
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MERS could be more deadly than Sars if health officials don't response quickly. The coronavirus is especially dangerous because of the annual Muslim pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia, where four new deaths were announced. The three-day meeting will focus at developing guidelines for Ramadan when in July more than two million people will attend the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Tourists could bring the virus back to their home countries and it seems the virus has an incubation period of up to 12 days and a fatality rate of 60 per cent.
"Everyone is very aware of the fact that Ramadan begins next month and that there will be a large, large movement of people in a small crowded spaces. So the more we know about this virus before that starts the better," said Gregory Hartl, WHO spokesman.
The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has announced an additional three laboratory-confirmed cases with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Additionally, four previously laboratory-confirmed cases have died.
Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 64 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 38 deaths.
WHO has received reports of laboratory-confirmed cases originating in the following countries in the Middle East to date: Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and the United Kingdom also reported laboratory-confirmed cases; they were either transferred there for care of the disease or returned from the Middle East and subsequently became ill. In France, Italy, Tunisia and the United Kingdom, there has been limited local transmission among patients who had not been to the Middle East but had been in close contact with the laboratory-confirmed or probable cases.
WHO does not advise special screening at points of entry with regard to this event nor does it currently recommend the application of any travel or trade restrictions. ■