Kingdom, US Join Forces to Defeat MERS
GENEVA: Saudi Arabia and the US may prepare a vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) to try and head off the next outbreak of the disease, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
Margaret Chan said Saudi Health Minister Khalid Al-Falih was discussing this with US public health officials.
“They communicated and looked at collaboration and to see whether we can, in terms of preparedness, get some vaccines ready in advance of another MERS outbreak,” Chan told reporters.
MERS has killed at least 571 of 1,595 people infected since September 2012, mainly in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Falih was “much more forthcoming” than Riyadh had been in the past, Chan said, and had $70 million for research that would help fill the many gaps in the science of MERS.
But many questions remained, she stressed: “Is it just in camels? Or in other animals? Is there an available early version of the vaccine, where more work needs to be done? Do we need a vaccine for camels? These are questions we are discussing.” Chan said: “We’re making baby steps.”
The WHO director-general said she also worried about other diseases including the flu strains H5N1 and H7N9.
Many MERS patients have been health workers who caught the disease when sufferers came to hospital for treatment.