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Source: http://www.calgaryherald.com/health...+research+find+MERS+source/8495078/story.html
Saudi paperwork demands delay work to research to find MERS source: CDC
By Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press June 7, 2013 2:10 PM
TORONTO - Last October, scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control went to Saudi Arabia to try to find the source of a new virus which at that point was known to have killed one Saudi man and left a man from Qatar gravely ill.
The CDC scientists are still waiting for a chance to test the samples they took during that investigation. Those specimens remain in Saudi Arabia, tied up in prolonged negotiations for a material transfer agreement the Saudi government has insisted the American agency sign.
The situation is frustrating the American scientists and impeding efforts to find the source of a virus which has now infected 55 people, killing 31 of them.
It's also ironic. Dr. Ziad Memish, the Saudi deputy health minister, has complained bitterly and publicly that the Dutch laboratory that first identified the MERS coronavirus applied for a patent on its genetic sequence and has been requiring labs that want virus samples to sign just such an agreement, known in research lingo as an MTA.
The scientist who heads the CDC division which is waiting for the Saudi samples said it is uncommon for the agency to be asked to sign an MTA to study samples taken during the course of an outbreak investigation. The team was in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the kingdom's government...
Saudi paperwork demands delay work to research to find MERS source: CDC
By Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press June 7, 2013 2:10 PM
TORONTO - Last October, scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control went to Saudi Arabia to try to find the source of a new virus which at that point was known to have killed one Saudi man and left a man from Qatar gravely ill.
The CDC scientists are still waiting for a chance to test the samples they took during that investigation. Those specimens remain in Saudi Arabia, tied up in prolonged negotiations for a material transfer agreement the Saudi government has insisted the American agency sign.
The situation is frustrating the American scientists and impeding efforts to find the source of a virus which has now infected 55 people, killing 31 of them.
It's also ironic. Dr. Ziad Memish, the Saudi deputy health minister, has complained bitterly and publicly that the Dutch laboratory that first identified the MERS coronavirus applied for a patent on its genetic sequence and has been requiring labs that want virus samples to sign just such an agreement, known in research lingo as an MTA.
The scientist who heads the CDC division which is waiting for the Saudi samples said it is uncommon for the agency to be asked to sign an MTA to study samples taken during the course of an outbreak investigation. The team was in Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the kingdom's government...