Has a Global Pandemic begun? Tunisian man traveling to Saudi Arabia dies of coronavirus: scientists worried Hajj may touch off global pandemic

   
The 2013 Hajj will take place in mid-October, only five months from now. Experts watching the coronavirus situation are already worried about the potential for spread of the new virus, both within Saudi Arabia and internationally. “I don’t think anyone necessarily knows for certain what is or isn’t happening,” said Dr. Kamran Khan, an infectious diseases specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.

May 21, 2013 – TUNIS, Tunisia – Tunisia’s Health Ministry says a 66-year-old man has died after being infected by the new coronavirus following a visit to Saudi Arabia. The ministry’s statement reported that his son and daughter were also diagnosed with the virus but have been treated and since recovered. The cases are the first for Tunisia and indicate that the virus is slowly trickling out of the Middle East, where more than 30 cases have been reported. There have been at least 20 deaths from the virus worldwide. The Tunisian, a diabetic, had been complaining since his return from a trip to Saudi Arabia and Qatar and died from acute respiratory distress at a hospital in Monastir. The new coronavirus is related to SARS, which killed about 800 people in 2003, mostly in Asia. –CTV News

WHO worried virus is spreading: The World Health Organization has issued a blunt assessment of the coronavirus outbreak in Saudi Arabia, acknowledging for the first time that there are concerns the virus may be spreading from person to person, at least in a limited way. The statement called for urgent investigations to find the source of the virus and learn how it is infecting people. And it reminded countries they have a duty to the international community to rapidly report cases and related information to the WHO. The worrying appraisal of the situation was echoed in a revised risk assessment issued Friday by the European Centre for Disease Control. It warned hospitals in Europe to be on the lookout for coronavirus cases coming in by air ambulance, saying the numbers of such patients may rise if the public in affected countries are afraid to seek care in their own hospitals. The warnings come as health leaders from around the world are gathering in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, the annual general meeting of the WHO. The eight-day meeting begins Monday. Though other nations have not publicly pressed leaders of coronavirus-affected countries for more transparency to date, it is likely that concerns about the virus and the opaque way investigations into it are being handled will be aired during the meeting. “There is no formal agenda for novel coronavirus but I would be surprised if it didn’t come up,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in an interview. Saudi Arabia, after all, is the home of Mecca. The holy site draws roughly three million Muslims from around the world every year to the Hajj, a mass pilgrimage Muslims are meant to perform at least once in their lifetimes. As well, nearly one million international tourists travel to Mecca during Ramadan — the Muslim month of fasting — to take part in another pilgrimage called Umrah. Ramadan starts in the second week of July this year. And the 2013 Hajj will take place in mid-October, only five months from now. Experts watching the coronavirus situation are already worried about the potential for spread of the new virus, both within Saudi Arabia and internationally. “I don’t think anyone necessarily knows for certain what is or isn’t happening,” said Dr. Kamran Khan, an infectious diseases specialist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. In his research, Khan tracks global travel patterns as a tool to predict and interpret spread of diseases. “I’m not sure that there’s an easy way to get at this information unless it’s more forthcoming from within Saudi Arabia or any of the partners that are working with Saudi Arabia inside the country.” To date, the WHO has been notified of 41 confirmed infections with the virus, which has been recently named MERS, for Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Of those cases, 20 have been fatal. The bulk of the infections have occurred in Saudi Arabia, which is investigating a large and ongoing outbreak in the eastern part of the country, near the Persian Gulf. The most recent case — an 81-year-old woman whose illness was announced Saturday — is part of that outbreak. In its statement, the WHO said two of the cases in that outbreak have no links to either other coronavirus patients or a hospital where some transmission is known to have occurred. These unconnected cases suggest two possibilities. They could have contracted the virus from its as-yet unidentified reservoir, which is thought to be one or more animal species. Or these cases could be a signal that undetected human transmission is happening there. “The continued appearance of cases that are not part of larger clusters, and who do not have a history of animal contact, increases concerns about possible community transmission. This possibility is being investigated by authorities in Saudi Arabia,” the WHO statement said. –Ottawa Citizen

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