Transparency, teamwork key to beating deadly MERS outbreak
The Republic of Korea (RoK) risks a long battle with MERS unless it is transparent, works with international virus-hunters and avoids mistakes made by Saudi Arabia, where the killer disease took hold after emerging in 2012.
Virology and infectious disease specialists fought for almost two years to persuade secretive Saudi authorities to share scientific data that may have helped them halt the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) there more swiftly.
Controlling the RoK outbreak -- which has already infected some 30 people, killing two so far - will require a level of openness that Saudi Arabia has only now begun to adopt.
"The first case of MERS was reported almost three years ago, and yet the disease remains a serious health threat to the global community, with many basic questions ... unanswered," said Alimuddin Zumla, a University College London professor of infectious diseases and international health who co-wrote an analysis of the MERS situation in The Lancet on June 3.
Zumla told Reuters he had already seen worrying signs in Seoul - that the response is slow and that health officials are not keen on external help. He urged authorities there to open up, share data and allow international specialists in to help.
"We need more global attention and more international collaboration. They should get a multi-disciplinary team over to help sequence the (genes of) the virus and see if it's becoming more virulent. They should do that as soon as possible."
Ben Neumann, a virologist at Britain's Reading University, noted that new MERS cases in Saudi Arabia had dropped from scores a week in April and May 2014 to barely a handful now, coinciding with a more open and collaborative approach.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 1,161 MERS cases globally, including 436 deaths, the vast majority in the Middle East. There is no cure or vaccine against the disease.