As Deadly Virus Spreads, Saudis Defend Role

[Shiloh]

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324323904578370504178096628.html

March 19, 2013, 4:46 p.m. ET
As Deadly Virus Spreads, Saudis Defend Role

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER in RIYADH, Saudi Arabia and BETSY MCKAY in Atlanta

A SARS-like virus has infected 15 people, nine of whom have died, mostly in Saudi Arabia, worrying some Western scientists who question whether the kingdom is sharing enough critical data on the outbreak.

But a top Saudi Arabia health official rejected those complaints on Tuesday and said the virus posed a low risk of pandemic...

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: As Deadly Virus Spreads, Saudis Defend Role

hat tip Michael Coston

Red bolding mine.


WSJ Video: Saudis Reject Claims Of Withholding NCoV Information

Coronavirus – Credit CDC PHIL

# 7017

While it’s true infectious diseases respect no borders, sovereign nations wield a great deal of power when it comes to divulging disease information.

As we saw with China in 2002-2003 and SARS, and Indonesia for several years with bird flu, some nations can be very `selective’ when it comes to releasing information.

International agencies, like the World Health Organization, FAO, and OIE must rely upon the relevant Ministries in member nations for timely and complete infectious disease updates.
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In recent months we’ve seen a small number of novel coronavirus (NCoV) cases emanating from Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East, including a family cluster in the UK (see Eurosurveillance: H2H Transmission of NCoV In UK Family Cluster).

Of concern, the doctor - Ali Mohamed Zaki - who revealed the first case in a letter to ProMed Mail last summer (see Sometimes They Come Back) was subsequently fired.

And based on onset dates, some of the case reports coming out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) appear to have been slow in being released.

The last case report – released March 6th – relayed information about a who had died two weeks earlier from the virus - `hospitalized on 10 February 2013 and died on 19 February 2013.’
​

All of which has led to some speculation that we might not be getting the full picture of what is going on with this emerging virus. Yesterday, Betsy McKay of the Wall Street Journal was interviewed in a 3 minute video, where she discusses these concerns, and the Saudi’s rejection of those claims.

Follow the link to watch the complete video:

Saudis Reject Claims of SARS-Like Virus

Saudi Arabia has rejected accusations that it is covering up details of a deadly new SARS-like virus, which has recently been shown to be capable of spreading from person to person. Betsy McKay reports.

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You’ll note that the WSJ continues to use the `SARS-Like’ appellation for NCoV in their headlines (as does most of main stream media), despite calls from the WHO to use NCoV instead (see WHO: Please Don’t Call It `SARS-Like’).

Although I use NCoV in this blog, my readers are already familiar with the nomenclature. It is admittedly more difficult for mainstream headline writers to switch to a relatively new, and little known substitute.

Which explains why the term `Swine Flu’ is still sometimes used by the press, instead of the WHO recommended A(H1N1)pdm09.

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Full Disclosure: I served on a Pandemic & the Media with Betsy McKay in 2009 at a CIDRAP conference in Minneapolis.

Posted by Michael Coston at <a class="timestamp-link" href="http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2013/03/wsj-video-saudis-reject-claims-of.html" rel="bookmark" title="permanent link"><abbr class="published" title="2013-03-20T09:16:00-04:00">9:16 AM</abbr>

 

[Giuseppe]

Re: As Deadly Virus Spreads, Saudis Defend Role

The enhanced surveillance guidelines suggested by international health agencies to all Member States around the world is the best tool to detect early any occurrence of the Novel Coronavirus human infections.

Since no one knows with certainty the geographical dispersion of this newly discovered pathogen and the exact time of its appearence in the human population (some researchers suggested a evolutionary clock of a couple of years, but it is an early estimate), the best way to know whether it is circulating in other areas out of the Middle East region is to search among pneumonia cases.

This approach may require however a costly and intensive health care spending infrastructure, not affordable in the European region at these times.

The societies in the Middle East and southern Mediterranean basin regions are in full turmoil, with crumbling state infrastructures, increasing poverty and even escalating armed conflicts.

In this scenario, obviously, a readily transmissible disease could have caused already a wider epidemic, with spillover at the neighoring regions.

Despite enhanced surveillance, no obvious change in respiratory diseases patterns were spotted so far.

It is not said that in the near future this NCoV will not cause community outbreaks, and for this reason enhanced sentinel surveillance for respiratory infections is urgently needed.

The fanfare in media outlets about new SARS is not a good thing anyway. >GM