Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Blog #10: Saudi Arabia: MERS Virus Found in Patient's Pet Camel



            A lethal drug disease has been found in a pet camel belonging to a human victim in Saudi Arabia. The virus causing many deaths is the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that is often related to SARS, a lethal lung disease. The Saudi Arabia Health Ministry announced this on Monday November 11th, 2013. When they found the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome it added belief to the theory of the virus coming from bats but only reaching humans through camels. In other cases of MERS the victim would get sick and reported to have had contact with a sick camel before hand. Antibodies to the disease had been found in a camel but the virus itself had not. MERS has killed bout 64 people since it was first away from a year ago with 53 cases being reported in Saudi Arabia. The MERS disease can also be spread from human to human but not as often as the other SARS disease.
            Sever acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease with flu-like symptoms that could also include fever, lethargy symptoms, cough, sore throat, etc. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is also a viral respiratory illness that has the same symptoms as SARS but has only been found in Saudi Arabia back in 2012 and now recently. Half of the people that receive MERS die because that illness is very serious. The only difference between MERS and SARS is the way it infects and also the fact that SARS comes from bats and MERS can be transferred to humans by camels. There is no specific treatment that can cure MERS recommended but you can get medical care to help relieve some of the coughing, aching, and feverish symptoms. The National Institute of Health took two licensed antiviral drugs that reduced virus replication and it recently created a clinical outcome in monkeys. There have been no traces of MERS or SARS located in the United States and has not spread country to country so we should have complete immunity to this disease.






Kaley Stapleton
November 13, 2013
1:32 pm

No comments: