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FILE - Undated electron microscope image of novel coronavirus particles, also known as the MERS virus, colorized in yellow.
April 30, 2014 8:37 AM
GENEVA — The World Health Organization
(WHO) says it believes the recent spike in cases of Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS Corona virus is probably due to a seasonal
increase of the disease rather than to any changes in the behavior of
the virus.
WHO says similar upsurges have occurred around the same time in the past two years.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl says the increase in cases is most likely due to the warmer weather in the Arabian Peninsula and to outbreaks of the disease in two or three hospitals in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
He says health officials do not know how the virus is transmitted from person to person. But it is clear, he says, the disease does not spread with the same ease that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, did.
Countries reporting new MERS cases, 2014.
“We
do not think it does transmit very efficiently," said Hartl. "It
certainly is not anything like SARS or like diseases like
influenza…There is no way we can predict the future. But, for us, at
the moment, certainly this virus MERS does not have the ability to
infect in the same way that SARS did. So, that is a good sign.”
WHO says similar upsurges have occurred around the same time in the past two years.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl says the increase in cases is most likely due to the warmer weather in the Arabian Peninsula and to outbreaks of the disease in two or three hospitals in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
He says health officials do not know how the virus is transmitted from person to person. But it is clear, he says, the disease does not spread with the same ease that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, did.
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