New Delhi: A new virus has shaken Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and is now creeping closer to India. A relatively new lethal 'camel virus' technically called the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus or MERS has taken a huge toll on the confidence of the South Koreans.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged India to be vigilant about a possible attack by the virus that is spreading fast.
Top WHO official Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of WHO (South-East Asia Region), New Delhi urged India 'to enhance surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections, focus on early diagnosis, and step up infection prevention and control procedures in health-care facilities'.
She triggered an alarm by saying, "Strong health systems using strict infection control measures would be the key to prevent the spread of the virus and protect healthcare workers and others."
In South Korea the epidemic continues. Seoul's economy, considered the fourth largest in the world with an annual GDP of USD 845 billion, is taking a hit because of the tinniest creatures of the world. This new pathogen is very similar to the virus that causes the 'common cold' yet so deadly that almost a third of the patients infected with this new virus have died. No specific treatment or a vaccine is available against this new disease.
Many people on the streets of Seoul are wearing surgical masks, such was the demand that chemist shops ran out of supplies. When one lands at the airport, special screening procedures and a health quarantine facility screen all incoming passengers.
A high-level panel of the WHO convened to assess this current emergency pointed to several factors that could led to the outbreak, which included a lack of awareness among health care workers and the general public about MERS; a suboptimal infection prevention and control measures in hospitals; close and prolonged contact of infected MERS patients in crowded emergency rooms and hospital wards with many beds to a room; the custom of many visitors or family members staying with infected patients in the hospital rooms facilitated secondary spread of infections among contacts.
These conditions are all too familiar for us in India so it is a surprise that the virus has still not spread to India so far, since huge numbers of workers travel to the Middle Eastern countries. It is estimated that they send remittances of over USD 10 billion annually to India but thankfully none have brought home the deadly new vir
Not, unduly concerned, I decided to heed the advice of the WHO to proceed without fear since there was no spread of the virus within the wider community but was restricted specifically only to infected hospitals of Seoul.
In the 21st century, new viruses are popping up with impunity, from the SARS virus in 2002; Swine Flu in 2009; Bird Flu in 2013; and Ebola in 2014 and now the latest Asian outbreak of MERS in 2015. Globalisation is also helping the spread of viruses to new parts of the world at unforeseen speeds.
Fortunately, for India the deadly camel virus has not found its way into the country despite the huge population of over 6 million expatriate workers earning a living in the Gulf countries -- the epicentre of the MERS virus. There have been fears that the MERS virus could find its way to India through pilgrims returning after the Haj pilgrimage later.
This deadly virus was inadvertently imported into South Korea on May 20 and since then over 160 cases have been reported with at least 24 people losing their lives. The country's best known hospital -- the Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul with nearly 2000 beds and treating almost 8000 patients a day has almost been shut down as it became the epicentre of the Korean ME
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