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DOCTORS HAVE SAID that a new respiratory disease dubbed the ‘new SARS’ has now killed 38 people around the world – as medical professionals scramble to figure out exactly how the condition spreads between people.
Over 60 cases of MERS (which stands for ‘Middle East Respiratory Syndrome’) have been identified by the World Health Organisation – with the majority being detected in Saudi Arabia, giving rise to the condition’s name.
However, in a worrying echo of the SARS outbreak ten years ago, doctors say the disease appears to spread with worrying ease – and what’s more, it also spreads easily within hospitals.
“To me, this felt a lot like SARS did,” Dr Trish Perl, a senior hospital epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, told the Associated Press.
“In the right circumstances, the spread could be explosive.”
Perl, a member of a team which has published a study on the spread of the new virus within Saudi Arabia, said there were still major confusion about the way in which it was spread from person to person.
Some of the people who contracted the disease while in hospital had not come close to the original infected person, she said.
The team’s study determined that, within the Saudi cluster of infected patients, each individual patient had infected more people than would usually be expected.
For example, one patient had spread the virus to seven others – including other patients who, like the original patient, had been undergoing dialysis.
In the SARS case, such patients had been known as “super-spreaders” – and in some cases were responsible for spreading the condition to new countries.
Though the scale of the outbreak remains small – with only a handful of cases outside Saudi Arabia, the majority of them elsewhere in the Middle East – the key fear is the proportion of infected patients who die from the disease.
In the case of SARS, around 8 per cent of infected patients died. So far, within the Saudi outbreak, MERS has killed 65 per cent of the people it has infected.
As long as it is around, it has every opportunity at the genetic roulette table to turn into something more dangerous,” said Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota.
WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan has previously called MERS the single biggest public health threat and acknowledged officials were “empty-handed” regarding prevention measures.
“We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat,” she said last month in Geneva.
At a meeting this weekend in Cairo, WHO will meet with other experts to discuss MERS and to possibly develop guidelines for next month’s Ramadan, when millions of Muslim pilgrims will be visiting Saudi Arabia.
Additional reporting by AP
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Most major factories have been allowed keep up with hundreds of staff on site at times since covid kicked in under the banner of being “essential” apparently some believed once u put essential over these large businesses it gave them immunity from covid more than small businesses who were forced to close with little choice……go figure
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: Bang on. Was always gonna happen with outbreaks. Amazing how certain business deemed non essential a year ago are now miraculous deeming themselves essential knowing full well nowt can or will be done about it.
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: And rightly so. It helps to improve reputation of Ireland and protect jobs.
@Rob Jones: If that’s the case open every business back up. Let’s protect all jobs including those stopped since March last year.
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: It is only small businesses & their staff that spread covid. Large businesses have stayed open through out the pandemic. What does this tell us about the government & opposition. They do not care about the ordinary people in Ireland. When are we going to cop ourselves on.
@Gere: plenty of small manufacturing businesses open to support larger ones, Pharma & medical especially
@talksense: and the reason those small businesses are open is cos of that reason they are supporting the big pharmaceutical or multinationals….who do ya think pulled those strings to deem them essential. Its an utterly pathetic joke how some bang on here everyday about holding form, and we are all in this together nonsense, while massive corporations and businesses have literally written their own covid rules from day one with government support and a blind eye turned by so many including the great NPHET
@Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: so you think it would have been a good idea to shut pharma plants? Sure who needs that kinda stuff in a pandemic?
@Pseud O’Nym: my point is the whole narrative at the start that we were all in this together was a total bluff and spoofing by those in charge and their supporters. These companies not to mention the big electrical giants and others have been allowed write their own covid rules under a banner of essential and nobody has batted an eyelid. Yet some lady tries opening her business a few months back and 6 squad cars are there to shut it down…..
The only thing consistent about COVID-19 is that the majority (between 70 and 90%) of cases are spread at the workplace. And the private market doesn’t really care in many cases, they will force people into the office. And then hospitality and air travel takes the blame for all of it. Cosy little arrangement.
@Tomo: How can hospitality be taking the blame for Covid when it is closed?
@Justin Gillespie: ask that donkey nuts George Lee, he was waffling on rte a few weeks ago how pubs and restaurants were still responsible for covid cases even though they were closed. Meanwhile meat and big multinational plants and factory’s are protected like sacred cow’s by those in power and ignored by their supporters as a reason we have cases. But hey its easier to hurt and Bury small business and hospitality, retail etc…than dare upset the big boys and FDI’s and actually make them close for a bit to see if that could drive down cases
@Tomo: Many cases are being spread through schools but it goes against the agenda to get kids back to school. Kids get it, pass it around the class, they’re asymptomatic, then bring it back home. The parents get symptoms, get tested and it goes down as household/community transmission…… As for workplace transmission its bound to happen but people need to take personal responsibility. It only has a minute chance to spread with proper mask wearing, proper hygiene and social distancing. Ive worked in the office throughout and there has been no spread internally because everyone is diligent…….. I agree that hospitality and air travel has been unfairly disrupted. Its peoples disregard for the guidelines that is spreading it/keeping cases high
It’s not Intel Staff that are infected….it is the contractors construction workers back on the building site less than a fortnight. Curious to know if it spread after many of them returned from Eastern Europe and didn’t self isolate. As according to construction representatives a few weeks back on Claire Byrne, a huge percentage of them were working while the industry here was in lockdown.
@Jennifer Rabe: site open through lockdown with no outbreaks previously
@Jennifer Rabe: you’re talking through your h0le there Jenifer. Sure the construction site at Intel never shut down as they had a derogation to keep working throughput the lockdown. Not sure how you think they are only back on site 2 weeks.
If I didnt know any better I’d think you’re a bit of a raci5t seeing as ye called out certain communities in your post.
@Eoin Scanlon: That’s a, very valid point Eoin
@Jennifer Rabe: it never closed..money talks
@Ian Synnott: I never made any assumptions of nationality or ethnicity, I only commented on a region that construction representative stated,on national radio, was where construction works from the Irish labour force were working during the lockdown we were in a few weeks back.
@Jennifer Rabe: you could join the construction force yourself Jenifer. You seem well capable of digging a big hole all by yourself. Leave the Eastern European’s alone and stop being a raci5t ;-)
@Eoin Scanlon: really , u must know noone who works there lol
@Jennifer Rabe: you did, you singled out Eastern Europe hahahahaha
@Jennifer Rabe: Jennifer, you’re embarrassing me. Please refrain from that in future. Ta, fellow Jennifer.
@Ian Synnott: comment of the evening goes to you Ian !! Couldn’t have said it better! Wind your neck in Jennifer and just because you heard the tripe that RTÉ are spouting on the radio does not make it true! Ian is out new fact checker !!!
@LadyBMW: *our
I suppose they will all be hotel quarantined now? You know, to stop the spread of infections, etc. It’s risk-assessment, right?
Long as breaks. Table pool.
xbox, and netflix. No clocking in.Doctor on the site
Great dental( 2 implants) five guys drink fountain for free. Sleeping pods.dominos every 3 months and massive bonus every quarter. “Workin from home” for those that catch my drift. Great memories. Still MSD pays more.
@transik: Its the construction site mate, Not the intel employee’s themselves.
@transik: cool story
@JillyBean: The construction guys shared the canteens, toilets, when i was there.
@Trevor Donoghue: No! They let the dirty builders inside? Made the rest of ye share with them? No wonder you left. The very idea.
I drove past it last week and loads of people working on the site were waiting at a bus stop and some were wearing masks and others not. They were all standing quite close together. So hardly surprising if it spread around so much.
@Audrey: Regular occurrence there
“Covid Inside”
What About THOMAS REID living next to the intel plant wouldn’t he want to be protected ?
What about THOMAS REID Living next to the Intel plant ???
He needs to be protected !
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