Understanding Middle East Respiratory Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms, and Transmission

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is a viral respiratory disease caused by the Corona virus, and was first discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

The coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome is a zoonotic virus, meaning it is transmitted between animals and humans. It has been shown to be associated with human disease in dromedary camels in several member states in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

The epidemiologist Dr. Ahmed Al-Tassa confirms that the Middle East Syndrome is one of the types of Corona, and that its origin, like all other types of Corona, is from bats, but it was transferred to camels before it was sent to people.

Al-Tassa explains in a statement to the Al-Hurra website that the latest wave of this syndrome was “very severe, more than the Covid-19 we have seen,” and caused high death rates.

Nearly 35 percent of MERS cases reported to the World Health Organization have died.

Globally, 2,204 cases and 860 deaths have been reported, according to the same source. The majority, more than 80 percent, were registered in Saudi Arabia.

Typical symptoms of this disease include fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Pneumonia is common, but patients with Middle East respiratory syndrome may not always develop this health condition. Gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhea, have also been reported in patients with Middle East respiratory syndrome.

Person-to-person transmission is still possible, and has occurred mostly between close contacts and in healthcare settings. Outside of healthcare settings, person-to-person transmission has been limited, according to the United Nations.

Regarding the method of transmission of this syndrome, the medical expert said that it is similar to what we know about the Corona virus, but because of its severity, it represents “a serious problem for teams medical.”

He said that if a large number of medical teams were infected and the death rates were high, this would cause a great panic among these teams, especially if they were not properly equipped, which continued to a collection of patient cases.

Al-Tassa does not expect the current spread to be similar to previous waves, affecting the health systems and teams, especially in the Gulf countries, who now have knowledge and experience in being dealing with the issue of epidemics and viruses.

However, he said the problem with any viral wave is tied to fluctuations, because we don’t know if it will be more deadly or not.

The health expert said that the World Health Organization “expects that a global epidemic or a new virus will happen in some way,” and the question is no longer if it will come or not, but when and how question “when?” “

The same spokesperson said that the questions raised are whether the upcoming viruses, whether Middle East Syndrome or others, will be worse than Corona, because in this case there will be we are talking about high levels of deaths as well.

Professor of Clinical Pharmacotherapy at the University of Petra, Dr. Dirar Hassan Balawi, said that the spread of Middle East Syndrome “is not fast and its ability to move is slow,” unlike the Covid-19 virus that ‘ caused by the Corona pandemic.

Balawi said that the cases that appear in Saudi Arabia are still very small, because in about 7 or 8 months there were about 4 cases of infection, which means that the disease is being controlled. virus, indicating that these new cases were expected to emerge. issues.

While there are several treatments and vaccines for MERS in clinical development, unlike Covid-19, none have gone through clinical trials and been approved by regulators.

In this regard, Balawi said in a statement to the Al-Hurra website that there is no vaccine or treatment available for this disease so far, indicating that research and studies have been carried out, but due to the small number of documented cases, there have not been. has been completed.

In this regard, Al-Tassa said that it is too early to know how the virus spreads, noting that in previous cases, the spread was linked to camels, after the a virus was sent to them through a bat, and it was the animal’s place. the transmitter to people.

He said that the virus could have caught a certain predatory animal and that a person ate it, for example, without cooking or dealing with it in a close way. Therefore, studies and research continue to find out where it came from and to control it, but this is only a matter of time because each case is monitored on a case by case basis to find the zero point from which the disease started.

For his part, Dr. Balawi said that transmission does not always occur through direct contact with camels. Instead, those he had may have come into contact with infected people and the sent them a disease, stressing that this created “a situation of alarm. in Saudi Arabia to track and trace contacts to record all cases.”