Middle East Respiratory Syndrome "MERS"

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News broke out in dailies, television and news portals that a new virus similar to the "SARS" virus is spreading like wildfire in the Middle East region.  News reports dubbed it as "Middle East Respiratory Syndrome" or for short "MERS"

I did not pay much attention to it because the virus outbreak was far from my country- the Philippines.

Sadly, however, the news became personal.  One of our family member, who is working in the Middle East region, fell victim to the virus.  We received news of his confinement in the hospital's intensive care unit.  We were all shocked about the news.

This threw me in a frenzy for more information about the virus.  I searched the internet about the virus and I learned some facts about it.  The first known case of infection was reported in 2012 in the Middle East region specifically Saudi Arabia.  It was believed to have originated from Eqyptian bats and transmitted to camels.  Transmission to humans was believed to have occurred while eating camel meat or drinking camel milk.  Transmission from human to human was through coughing. 

The largest number of cases was reported in Saudi Arabia with over 300 cases and 1/3 were reported as fatalities.  Other reported cases were registered in other Middle East countries, Europe and Asia. The spreading of the virus was mainly due to human cross border movement.

Some doctors in the Saudi Arabia  were scared to treat the virus.  Unfortunately, medical workers are prone to the infection and there were indeed reported cases.

Victims suffer from coughing and some progress to infection such as pneumonia.  Surviving the MERS virus will depend on the antibiotics treatment, if it will successfully fight off the viral induced infection; and the physical constitution of the victim at the time of the infection.  One can only hope for the best.  But for my family member the initial antibiotics treatment was not quite successful which required intubation because of breathing difficulty. The virus reportedly also attacks the kidneys which would require dialysis.  All of our family members were praying for recovery.  News was scarce because of the distance.  It was a gloomy week-long wait for news from far away.  Quite agonizing.

After a week we finally received news that our family member who fell victim to the MERS virus has survived it and was declared "MERS" free.

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