Scientists fear that deadly MERS virus could be transmissible through the air
by: David Gutierrez
NaturalNews.com
Friday, March 25, 2016
A serious new respiratory virus with a high mortality rate may have the potential to be transmitted by air, according to a study conducted by researchers from King Fahd Medical Research Center in Saudi Arabia and published in the journal mBio last summer.
This would elevate the virus to a much greater public health concern, since airborne viruses such as the flu spread much more quickly and easily than viruses requiring some form of contact (such as colds) or viruses that cannot cross between human beings at all, but can only be acquired from animals (such as currently known forms of “bird flu”).
More than one-third of patients die
The virus in question, known as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS), was first identified in 2012. Since then, according to the World Health Organization, there have been 836 laboratory-confirmed cases of the disease, of these, at least 288 (34.5 percent) contributed to the patient’s death.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) records 850 cases of MERS, and 327 deaths (38.4 percent mortality). Nearly all the cases have occurred in Saudi Arabia, but some cases have also been reported among people in the United States, Asia and Europe who had recently traveled to the Middle East.
Researchers are still unsure how the severe respiratory infection is transmitted, although studies have suggested that the disease is linked to camels in some way. Many experts believe that most cases of the disease have been transmitted to people directly from camels, via close contact with the living animals or their meat or milk. However, other studies have suggested that some cases may have been transmitted from person to person, via close contact.
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