Saudi Arabia is deploying local and international resources to contain the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), says a top health official.
His remarks came as the Ministry of Health confirmed the 100th MERS case in the Kingdom.
Read More
DALLAS – A Texas megachurch linked to at least 21 measles cases has been trying to contain the outbreak by hosting vaccination clinics, officials said Monday.
The outbreak started when a person who contracted measles overseas visited Eagle Mountain International Church in Newark, located about 20 miles north of Fort Worth, Texas. Officials with area health departments said those affected by the outbreak range in age from 4-months to 44-years-old. All of the school-aged children with measles were homeschooled, and majority of those who were infected had not been vaccinated.
Read MoreDAMMAM – A veterinary clinic in the Eastern Province has registered the death of three cats suffering from MERS-coronavirus over a period of four months.
Director of the clinic Dr. Khaled Al-Saffaf said the cats died due to their inability to resist the virus.
Read More
New Discovery May Lead to Treatments for Lethal Ebola Virus
The Ebola virus – one of the deadliest diseases known to man – has been appearing throughout the world with increasing frequency over the last two years. There is no cure and no vaccines exist for the disease, which has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent.
Scientists believe that the deadly Mers virus sweeping Saudi Arabia could have originated in camels.
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is spread by people coughing or sneezing and can cause breathing difficulties, lung damage and pneumonia.
The World Health Organisation believes that there have been 94 confirmed cases so far, and 46 deaths – with Saudi Arabia as the country most affected.
Read More
The new Mers virus, which has killed half of those infected, is "unlikely" to reach the same scale as Sars, ministers in Saudi Arabia say.
Most of the 90 Mers cases reported so far have been in Saudi Arabia.
Mers is from the same group of viruses as the common cold and Sars, which killed 774 people.
Read More
The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) is not a “public health emergency of international concern,” the emergency committee of the World Health Organization said.
Its 15 international experts issued a unanimous decision after hearing reports from authorities in Saudi Arabia and other countries affected by the deadly SARS-like virus that has infected 82 people and killed 45 of them since April 2012.
Read More
A Swiss company has introduced a new face mask to combat the risk of infection in mass gatherings amid growing anxiety about the status of the new coronavirus during the forthcoming Haj season.
Latest reports indicate that as many as 66 people have been infected with the virus in the Kingdom, while 38 have died.
As a large number of Muslims are expected to visit Makkah and Madinah during Ramadan and the upcoming Haj season in October, the new technology can be used to assist in reducing the risk and incidence of air-borne infection.
Launching the face mask at a conference in Geneva, workers of Viroblock SA, its makers, demonstrated its qualities. It uses technology that traps and kills over 99.9995 percent of air-borne H1N1 flu viruses (swine flu), 99.999 percent of H5N1 flu viruses (avian flu) and 99.997 percent of human coronaviruses.
Read MoreThe Ministry of Health yesterday announced the 66th case of the novel coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the Asir region on Monday.
So far, a total of 38 deaths have been reported out of the 66 cases detected in the Kingdom. This is the first case of the virus detected in Asir, an official from the Ministry of Health said yesterday. He pointed out that earlier cases were found in areas such as Al-Ahsa, Al-Qassim, Riyadh, Jeddah, Hafr Al-Batin, Dammam, Wadi Al-Dwasir, Taif and Bisha.
Read More
Be careful next time you change the kitty litter -- cat poop can carry a nefarious parasite that may be much more widespread than thought, researchers say.
Cats in the United States release about 2.6 billion pounds (1.2 million metric tons) of feces into the environment every year. Cat dung carries the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled organism that creates infectious agents called oocysts. These oocysts can infect pregnant women, causing congenital problems in the baby such as deafness, seizures, eye damage and mental retardation. The parasite also infects people with compromised immune systems, such as those with HIV/AIDS.
Read More
