Is this Something to be Worried about? (MERS)

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**Frazzled**

http://news.yahoo.com/us-reports-third-case-potential-mers-virus-221726835.html

Washington (AFP) - A third potential case of the dangerous Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS), has been found in the United States, health authorities said Tuesday.

"Two of the 20 team members exposed to the confirmed MERS patient are showing symptoms," said Geo Morales, spokesman for the Orlando hospital where one infected patient was treated.

"One of the two has been admitted to the hospital but is in stable condition. The other was treated and discharged and is following precautions at home. All 20 team members have been tested and we are expecting those results within the next day or two," the spokesman added.

The second infected US patient was confirmed as such May 10. The man, 44, is a health care worker who resides and works in Saudi Arabia, who traveled by plane May 1 from Jeddah to London, England, then to Boston, Atlanta, and Orlando, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters.

The United States announced its first case earlier this month, a health care worker who had traveled to Riyadh at the end of April.

MERS causes fever, cough and shortness of breath, and can be lethal particularly among older people and those with pre-existing health problems.

Some 30 percent of the several hundred people infected with it have died, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus first emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and recent research has suggested it may originate in camels.

The vast majority of cases have been in Saudi Arabia, but MERS has also been found in 16 other countries. Most cases involved people who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia.

**thenoobbomb**

Oh, it's also been found today in the Hague, in the Netherlands!

**kronk**

Sounds like SARS.

If you're very old, very young, or have a constitution score below 5, be worried. Otherwise, follow South Park's medical advice: Chicken Noodle Soup, 7-up/Sprite, Niquil.

**Dreadclaw69**

Oh good, it's been a few years since we had a respiratory health scare

**Kilkrazy**

We can breath easily again now that lack has been remedied.

**d-usa**

Should you be worried? Possibly.

Should you follow the same common sense activities that you should always follow (wash your hands, stay at home if sick, don't lick people's eyeballs)? Sure.

Now let's all watch a movie and relax:

**kronk**

I think we should do away with handshakes since they spread diseases.

Also, children and mosquitoes.

**Catyrpelius**

kronk wrote:
I think we should do away with handshakes since they spread diseases.

Also, children and mosquitoes.

I support you in your quest of the elemination of children.

**hotsauceman1**

Those damn middle eastern viruses will never invade my american lungs. Those are good god fearing christian lungs

**Avatar 720**

kronk wrote:
Sounds like SARS.

If you're very old, very young, or have a constitution score below 5, be worried.

Erm, I'd like to ask the GM for an emergency re-roll of my constitution stat...

**Forar**

Working at a large public venue during Sars was interesting times. People were freaking out, even staff were getting swept up in things. Look, mister fit 20 year old, no, you're not likely to drop dead tomorrow because people occasionally cough in the mall.

It was a mix of funny and obnoxious, but was I ever glad when it finally settled down.

Not to say that these aren't serious issues and worth keeping an eye on, but from what I heard on the radio this morning, it's not at "pants gak'ing" yet either.

**kronk**

Avatar 720 wrote:
kronk wrote:
Sounds like SARS.

If you're very old, very young, or have a constitution score below 5, be worried.

Erm, I'd like to ask the GM for an emergency re-roll of my constitution stat...

Muligans are for the weak and sickly!

Forar wrote:
Working at a large public venue during Sars was interesting times. People were freaking out,

No gak! During SARS my company knee jerked and required a metric butt load of tissues, hand sanitizer, soap, plastic gloves, and other stuff to be stocked using some convoluted equation at all of our plants.

We always stocked that stuff before, don't get me wrong, but the minimums they wanted to keep were asinine. Last year, we had stuff nearing the end of their shelf life (oddly, tissues DO have one!) and all of the plant managers pitched a fit when they looked at having to spend that $$$ again and again every 5 years. So the company policy was relented, and the plants put together what we nicknamed SARS care packages, and gave the extra gak to the employees at the plants.

Good times.

**gorgon**

MRSA scares me a lot more.

**SilverMK2**

Probably not, no. As far as I am aware there is no special concern over it in anything other than news agencies.

**Frazzled**

How communicable is it? Its one thing to be quite lethal but hard to transmit.

**d-usa**

Frazzled wrote:
How communicable is it? Its one thing to be quite lethal but hard to transmit.

That's the main concern, and probably the main reason people are reporting that it is found in the US now and that a person caring for someone that was infected might have been infected.

Healthcare workers catch the flu all the time as well though, so it's not something novel as of yet.

**Jihadin**

Deal with one ting at a time. Mass virus spread killing people off is one thing. Rising up as Zombies is two things.

**Frazzled**

Jihadin wrote:
Deal with one ting at a time. Mass virus spread killing people off is one thing. Rising up as Zombies is two things.

NO NO. Mass virus bad, to be dealt with. Zombies rising is vacation.

Get it right!

**chaos0xomega**

To the average (insured) American, its a relatively minor (though still painful) inconvenience, thats about it.

**Da Boss**

As world population increases these sorts of scares are going to stay relatively common, but it wouldn't really do for us to get complacent, because if a particularly nasty disease comes along (and it almost certainly will, eventually) the impact can be dramatically lessened with the right steps being taken early on.

So, basically, what d-usa said.

**Jihadin**

It takes one discovery to unleash something detrimental to the human race.

**kronk**

Jihadin wrote:
It takes one discovery to unleash something detrimental to the human race.

Too true. They discovered each other and look what was unleashed on humanity!!!

**BlaxicanX**

""Middle East" Respiratory Virus?"

God, I hate the media.

**d-usa**

I think that is the official name, not a media name.

But here is the panic map: http://coronamap.com

**Gymnogyps**

Not sure what you're saying, BlaxicanX. It actually is called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, caused by a virus. The name is based on where it was first noticed, which is just the way viruses are named. So yeah, there was a bit of a media mix up on virus vs. syndrome (MERV vs. MERS), but that's not really a big deal, since to most people its irrelevant. Science reporting in general is gak, though.

As far as whether this is something to worry about? Probably not.* The high death rate is likely an artifact of 1. people getting it while on the Hajj, a long arduous journey that can be physically stressful, including young, old, etc; 2. People go to the hospital get diagnosed. The people who go to the hospital because they are very sick. Very sick people die. The numbers don't count all the people who didn't go to the hospital.

As mentioned, what is interesting is that two healthcare workers picked it up dealing with one patient.

*The "probably" is because it is a new virus. No one knows how genetically stable it is, i.e. if it can swap genes around like flu, and the rates of transmission vs. illness vs. death are unknown. Any time those things aren't known, especially when people die, public health people take notice. Mostly because if it is an emergent pandemic disease no one has existing immunity to it.

**Nostromodamus**

Ah yes, another one of these "killer plagues" that has only affected a couple of hundred people worldwide.

When it starts killing more people than influenza, I might pay attention to it. Otherwise, media hype.

**Grey Templar**

True indeed.

I have a feeling that if there is a worldwide epidemic, it'll claim thousands of people before we even realize whats going on. That would be a true epidemic.

**Jihadin**

Trace it to North Korea probably

**marv335**

I'm in Saudi, I'm coughing at the screen now.
You're all going to get it....

The current thought is that it comes from Camels.

Arabs all over the country are switching to Marlboro as a precaution...

**KingCracker**

d-usa wrote:
Should you be worried? Possibly.

Should you follow the same common sense activities that you should always follow (wash your hands, stay at home if sick, don't lick people's eyeballs)? Sure.

Now let's all watch a movie and relax:

THAT MOVIE MADE IT WORSE! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!