See on Scoop.it – Global Health Care

MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) is a coronoa virus induced disease first documented in Saudi Arabia in 2012.  It’s mortality rate is about 30%.  On May 2, 2014, the first case of MERS made its way to the United States.  On May 11, 2014, a second U.S. case was confirmed.  (http://www.cdc.gov/CORONAVIRUS/MERS/INDEX.HTML)

Brian Altonen‘s insight:

News about the United States cases of MERS is at the CDC site http://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/US.html

 

The status of health care in Saudi Arabia was detailed in the conference presentation:  

HEALTH CARE DATA IN SAUDI ARABIA:  CHALLENGES IN COLLECTING, SHARING, AND APPLYING, by Mohammed Al-Kelya MS, PhD  and Abdulaziz Al-Saggabi, MSc, PharmD (http://www.ispor.org/meetings/neworleans0513/releasedpresentations/FORUMArabicNetwork.pdf&nbsp😉

 

WHO has reviewed healthcare in Saudia Arabia and presented its conclusions  at Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal – Health care system in Saudi Arabia: an overview, http://www.emro.who.int/emhj-volume-17/volume-17-issue-10/article-11.html

In a 2008 article published in the Lancet about disease penetration due to tourism and travel, a complete review was provided for diseases from Saudi Arabia and elsewhere,

Lin H. Chen, and Mary Elizabeth Wilson.  The Role of theTraveler in Emerging Infections and Magnitude of Travel,  Med Clin N Am 92 (2008) 1409–1432.  doi:10.1016/j.mcna.2008.07.005.

available in its entirety at http://download.thelancet.com/flatcontentassets/H1N1-flu/epidemiology/epidemiology-1.pdf

Older people with comorbidities are at the highest risk of infection and mortality from this diagnosis.   For more, see "Health officials keep close watch over MERS as potential pandemic", in 

Infectious Diseases in Children, September 2013, at http://www.healio.com/pediatrics/news/print/infectious-diseases-in-children/%7Bf9c3c3e0-0c66-45e5-a024-5256240113e5%7D/health-officials-keep-close-watch-over-mers-as-potential-pandemic

 

As many as 17 million people per year travel out of Saudi Arabia to other parts of the world.  High migration rates for people and high mortality rates for the virus (30-50%) are the makings for a potential pandemic, according to some writers.

 

For more on migrating disease patterns, see also:

 

Infectious Disease Movement in a Borderless World:: Workshop Summary, by Forum on Microbial Threats, Board on Global Health, Institute of Medicine.  National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.  Preview available at http://books.google.com/books?id=TJZhAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PT67

 

INFECTIOUS DISEASES RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL AND MIGRATION: PART I .  By George A. Wistreich, RC Educational Consulting Services, Inc, PDF accessible at http://www.rcecs.com/MyCE/PDFDocs/course/V7104.pdf

 

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