Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was screened for MERS fever by Crown Prince Salman Abdulaziz in Jeddah, but WHO's Keiji Fukuda recommends against fever

[Emily]

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/14/health/mers-outbreak/?hpt=hp_t3

MERS outbreak becomes more urgent, WHO says
By Josh Levs, CNN
updated 12:16 PM EDT, Wed May 14, 2014

...
Before a meeting in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Salman Abdulaziz in Jeddah, everyone entering the room with Hagel unwittingly passed by a device screening for fever.

Its operators told reporters that they were checking for people who might be infected with the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome. They found no one with a raised temperature.

WHO does not recommend such a tactic in general, Fukuda said. Some MERS patients don't have fevers, so just checking temperatures could "create a false sense of security," he said...

Nobody I know of is suggesting "just checking temperatures." This would be in addition to screening for respiratory symptoms following a few questions that determined a traveler had spent time in a Saudi healthcare facility or had contact with other high risk facilities.

I agree with WHO that MERS is not a global health emergency, but the health of a few plebeians should matter anyway. It would seem easy enough to screen at risk passengers with already in place US customs personnel. It would seem even easier to screen at risk departures from Saudi Arabia. That could save a lot of healthcare costs.

But since the lives of few plebeians aren't important to world leaders, I guess I can understand Saudi Arabia's reluctance to respond to WHO's urging and create a MERS-based employment program to study the disease.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/MERS+global+health+emergency+World+Health+Organization/9837474/story.html