14 DAY TRIAL // This past weekend, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement saying that the potentially deadly MERS-CoV virus had made its way outside the Middle East.
Information released by the Ministry of Health in Italy indicates that this virus has now spread to this country as well.
Three people in Italy have thus far been reported as infected with MERS-CoV (i.e. Middle East respiratory symptom coronavirus).
Two of them are women, while the third is a 45-year-old man who admitted that he had traveled to Jordan not very long ago.
“The Ministry of Health in Italy, through the European Union’s Early Warning Response System has notified WHO of an additional two laboratory-confirmed cases with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the country.”
“Both the patients are close contacts of the recent laboratory-confirmed case with recent travel from Jordan. The first patient is a two-year-old girl and the second patient is a 42-year-old woman. They are in stable condition,” reads a statement posted on WHO's official website this June 2.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States explain that, as far as symptoms go, this virus is not all that different from that of the common cold.
Thus, the virus targets a person's respiratory system and causes them to become feverous and start coughing.
The only difference is that, in the case of MERS-CoV, these two symptoms are significantly more severe and can eventually translate into pneumonia and kidney failure.
In the case of immunocompromised patients, atypical symptoms such as diarrhea might also occur.
Since September 2012 until present day, 53 cases of people infected with this virus have been reported worldwide. Of the people infected with MERC-CoV, 30 have died.
“Based on the current situation and available information, WHO encourages all Member States to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns.”
“Recent travellers returning from the Middle East who develop SARI should be tested for MERS-CoV as advised in the current surveillance recommendations,” WHO wished to stress.
Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the four countries where this virus is believed to originate.