MERS outbreak In Saudi Arabia – 2 dead, one survived in the last 9 months after drinking camel milk - UN conference in Saudi in two months asking for MERS submissions

From here:

Outbreak fears as two die from deadly coronavirus with higher mortality rate | Express.co.uk

“The type of coronavirus has caused 936 deaths globally so far, according to official data.”

“The Ministry of Health of KSA reported two deaths out of three additional cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS).

The unnamed men, aged 42 and 85, were diagnosed with the disease in Saudi Arabia in November 2022 and January 2023, respectively, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported.

Local health officials said another man, aged 83, tested positive for the deadly condition in December 2022, but survived. “

This is a few months ahead of a scheduled meeting on MERS in Saudi Arabia over the 27^th-29^th November 2023.

MERS-CoV call for information 2023 (who.int)

“The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), in partnership with the Public Health Authority and Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, have announced the biennial Quadripartite Global Technical Meeting on MERS-CoV and Other Emerging Zoonotic Coronaviruses. The meeting will be by invitation and take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 27–29 November 2023.”

So, only UN approved attendees required. Seems that camels are a known source of MERS. Note also the reference to “One Health” One health (who.int) I wonder if they know that the “direction of travel” of MERS is from camels to humans, or humans to camels?

“To shape the meeting agenda, the Quadripartite is calling for any new or ongoing research or information from 2019 onwards as an abstract or short summary related to the following themes:

MERS-CoV

Early warning frameworks, including surveillance, risk assessments, One Health/integrated sampling (e.g., recent seroprevalence studies in humans or dromedary camels, genetic sequencing of human or animal specimen, etc.);

Applied predictive modelling (e.g. transmission, ecological, risk of spillover, etc.);

Advances in diagnostics and therapeutics;

Advances in scientific knowledge, including:

Virology (e.g. differences in viral strains, etc.);

Immunology (e.g. the role of immunity in acquiring infection and shedding virus, etc.);

Pathogenicity;

Epidemiology and transmissibility among humans, among camels and between humans and camels;

Environmental, behavioral or host-related risk factors for zoonotic transmission;

Investigations into the role of asymptomatic human cases in the spread of MERS-CoV in community or healthcare settings;

Vaccine development (e.g. status of the progress and provisional timelines of vaccine trials in both humans and camels);

Advances on establishing coordination mechanisms among sectors for prevention and control of MERS-CoV and or other emerging zoonotic coronaviruses (e.g. information or data sharing platforms, joint research, joint risk assessment, etc.).

Additional themes related to animal health and camel sectors

Applied research and/or practices of community engagement as related to health, economic or market development, risk communication (e.g. drivers and opportunities of engagement);

Participatory research including participatory epidemiology, surveillance, etc.

Behaviour sciences and adaptive behaviour research (e.g. camel-husbandry related practices, anthropological studies, etc.).”

So, if you want an invite, better send your bribes directly to the UN or contact a member of the House of Saud or try and sneak your nose inside the tent in some other way.

Onwards!

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