MERS Coronavirus: Informational Booklet on Global Health

This booklet provides a comprehensive overview of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS). It details the purpose of the booklet, which is to educate the public about this dangerous disease and its global impact. The content covers transmission, highlighting the virus's link to bat coronaviruses and camels, its spread through close contact, and its ability to survive on surfaces. The epidemiology section discusses the virus's identification in 2012, its high fatality rate, and its association with travel. The clinical presentation section describes symptoms, ranging from mild to severe, and potential complications. The diagnosis section outlines diagnostic methods, including physical examinations and laboratory tests. The booklet also touches upon treatment and prevention strategies, emphasizing the need for public awareness and preventative measures due to the absence of a cure. The booklet underscores the importance of educating healthcare providers and the public about the virus to mitigate its spread and impact.

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MERS
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Table of Contents
Purpose .........................................................................................1
Transmission...................................................................................1
Epidemiology..................................................................................2
Clinical presentation........................................................................3
Diagnosis........................................................................................4
Treatment.......................................................................................5
Prevention......................................................................................6
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Purpose of this Booklet
The purpose of this booklet is to provide important information
related to spreading of most dangerous disease Middle East
respiratory syndrome coronavirus on the global level. This booklet
Booklets can be a great way to make people aware about
transmission, epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis and
treatment. MERS has emerged as one of the most dangerous
disease on the global level and one of the most worry thing
associated with this virus is that, no such medicine has been
manufactured which can treat this virus and therefore left only one
option for us which is prevention and maintaining safe environment
from this virus.

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Transmission
In earlier stage transmission disease are not well understood.
MERS coronavirus is similar to other virus which is linked with
bat coronavirus. This kind of virus is already detected in camels,
bats because of which it has spread almost every Middle East
countries (Azhar, et al. 2014). Various researches have been
conducted but still clarity about its spread is unknown. It has been
found that this kind of virus mainly spread due to close contact
between animals with persons as well as from infected person to
other person. One of the latest examples is spreading of
Coronavirus in Asian region started from China. This virus has
taken lives of more than thousand people in China and is
spreading rapidly on the global level. It has been explored that this
virus has the ability to live for almost eight days on door locks
which makes this virus more dangerous than other virus. Still
researcher are not able to find cure for this virus and therefore they
are helpless to keep inflected people in insolation from their
family and friend which has created tense situation on the global
level in terms of community setting.

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MERS coronavirus results in contamination in the form of range of
illness related to respiratory system, right from asymptomatic or
insignificant to deadly. At present epidemiologic proof that main
reason for spreading of this virus is direct contact of humans but
there is no evidence that products which are related to camel are
responsible for spread of this disease (Yang et al., 2014). It has been
found that in some MERS case direct contact of patient was not
reported which were suffering from symptomatic MERS. Research
are continued to explore those additional mechanism which may link
with transmission process of this virus. It is essential to provide
related information from health point of view in order to enhance
defensive suggestions.
It has been explored that transmission of this virus has been found in
various health care settings in which this virus has spread from
patient to medical care provider and from patient in healthcare
setting to other patient. In addition, there may be chances where
testing patient for symptoms will be little bit difficult due to some
non- specifications.
Even people which are offering health care services related to this
MERS are also being infected with MERS and therefore appropriate
measures must be taken to decrease the risk associated with
transmission of this virus from infected patient. Therefore it is
important to educate them to get training related to these situations
on the global level.

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Epidemiology
This virus has emerged as one of the dangerous virus which is
responsible for severe respiratory issue. According to reports
around 37.1% cases were reported regarding fatal situation.
At September, 2012 identification of this virus was reported
on large scale (Assiri et al., 2013). Illnesses were reported
onset April 2012 on document. This virus has been identified
health risk on the global platform. Travel has been recognized
as one of the key driving factor related to spread of this virus
such as Kuwait, Oman, UAE and so on (Al-Abdallat et al.,
2014). Identification of MERS virus has been found related to
travelers returning to other countries like US, Europe, Africa
and Asia. Therefore in this situation, one of the first actions
which every government has taken in this context was to
restrict travel of people from countries which was under the
influence of this virus because no medicine has been yet
discovered in order to cure this disease. Only prevention is
considered the only option available.

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Clinical presentation
This virus is not only linked with severe respiratory system
issue but also related to multi organ failure along with large
spectrum of illness with no specific definition. During this
duration large numbers of mild cases were reported related to
contacts. According to health report, it has been found out that
around 2- 14 days must be given to explore symptomatic illness
(Guery et al., 2013). This disease is often connected with health
patterns such as fever, heaviness in breath and cough. In
addition to this, there are other factors such as chills, arthralgia,
vomiting and sore throat. Earlier people used to link this disease
with pneumonia and few chest radiographs because it involved
pulmonary. It has been found that both sever and middle
respiratory directs towards MERS which may involve
cardiovascular collapse along with renal injury (Al-Tawfiq,
Assiri & Memish, 2013). Often children and older age people
are considered as soft target of this virus. But due to traveling
young adults were found more symptoms of this virus.

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In order to diagnose MERS, physical examination, fever and
swelling of glands will be done doctor to ensure whether it is
MERS or just flew. In some cases, even flew was linked with
MERS which imposes lot of stress on the patient. In addition,
stethoscope will be used to understand lungs beat flow along
with a chest x-ray, MRI scan to explore developing of any
fluid in lungs. In some cases, doctor will take health of
medical laboratory for confirmation of MERS by taking
sample so that further impact can be stopped (Mohd et al.,
2016). At present various modern diagnostic has been
developed in order to identify sever infection related to
MERS coronavirus. For this, medical team will make use of
real time RT or PCR. In addition, they will also collect lower
respiratory specimens for test purpose in order to explore
symptoms of this virus. Sometime it is necessary to also
gather upper respiratory specimens. It is important to collect
other specimens so that a better image of problem can be
drafted for treatment purpose. There have been cases where it
has been find out that disease such as cold and fever was also
considered symptoms of this virus and people were
unnecessary kept in isolation in order to prevent spreading of
this disease. People were continuously living under threat like
situation which has made their life a living hell.
Diagnosis
Treatment

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As per reports, no approved treatment has been explored so
far for MERS. Patients with mild symptoms recover
without any complications and therefore such patients can
be even treated at home with the help of certain
medications. But these people should stay isolated in order
to avoid spreading this kind of disease (Yang et al., 2014).
But in severe cases, there is an ample chance that patient
may suffer from lungs failure or dysfunction of respiratory
and in this situation, patient needs to be hospitalized.
WHO has offered authority to various labs by offering
them approval to conduct this RT_PCR test for MERS.
Both state and local health departments must be involved
for better outcome. Health problems like fever, pneumonia
or stress on respiratory organ must be taken lightly (Banik
et al, 2016). People traveling from Middle East countries
must been kept under observation in order to ensure
restriction of this virus especially when they are
complaining about issues like fever as well as respiratory
illness. This virus is known for attacking on respiratory
system which creates trouble in taking breath and in severs
condition death. Long survival of this virus makes it
difficult for medical professionals to treat patient which h
is being inflected by this virus. Initially patient with
inconclusive testing must undergo some supplementary
tests such as virologic and serologic in order to determine
whether patient can be classified in MERS case. As per
WHO report it is advisable that people suffering from
multiple lower respiratory specimens must undergo
bronchoalveolar fluid collection in order to understand
possible cause. It is very common fact that if patient is not
having these symptoms them it is not possible to find out
lower tract specimens and therefore it is important to focus
on oropharyngeal swab specimen collection. If in this, case
patient is displaying negative symbols in such situation it
is advisable to retest the patient to completely eliminate
possibility of spreading of this virus on the global level.
Treatment

One of the best ways to protect people from this virus is to
maintain hygiene practices because no such drugs are developed
for this MERS. As per CDC suggestions travelers must establish
hygiene precautions in terms of washing hands, avoid touching
eyes, mouth, nose or avoid to come in contact with sick person.
As per world health organization’s there are certain segment of
population which are considered under risk such as diabetic
people, chronic lungs issue, kidney issue and relative low
immune system (Suwantarat & Apisarnthanarak, 2015).
Therefore, it is strongly recommended that these groups must
consider additional precautions in order to protect from this
chronic disease by avoiding undercooked meat, raw milk and so
on. There are some other suggestions which can offer safety
from MERS virus such as washing hands for atleast 30 seconds.
In addition, currently people can use sanitizer which must have
some percent of alcohol as base in order to kill germs and
bacteria. People should try to avoid touching their eyes, mouth
with unwashed hands and keep distance from sick people or
wear face mask in order to prevent themselves from
contamination (Tahir et al., 2019). It must aspect as social
responsibility for every to stay at home if they feel they are sick
so that other people can be protected. Also person must cover
their cough and sneeze with some tissue and must not reuse that
issue for other purpose. Maintain hygiene related to those
objects which are continuously touching objects.
Prevention

References
Al-Abdallat, M. M., Payne, D. C., Alqasrawi, S., Rha, B.,
Tohme, R. A., Abedi, G. R., ... & Haddadin, A. (2014).
Hospital-associated outbreak of Middle East respiratory
syndrome coronavirus: a serologic, epidemiologic, and
clinical description. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 59(9),
1225-1233.
Al-Tawfiq, J. A., Assiri, A., & Memish, Z. A. (2013). Middle
East respiratory syndrome novel corona (MERS-CoV)
infection. Saudi Med J, 34(10), 991-994.
Assiri, A., Al-Tawfiq, J. A., Al-Rabeeah, A. A., Al-Rabiah, F.
A., Al-Hajjar, S., Al-Barrak, A., ... & Makhdoom, H. Q.
(2013). Epidemiological, demographic, and clinical
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Azhar, E. I., El-Kafrawy, S. A., Farraj, S. A., Hassan, A. M.,
Al-Saeed, M. S., Hashem, A. M., & Madani, T. A.
(2014). Evidence for camel-to-human transmission of
MERS coronavirus. New England Journal of
Medicine, 370(26), 2499-2505.
Banik, G. R., Khandaker, G., & Rashid, H. (2015). Middle East
respiratory syndrome coronavirus “MERS-CoV”:
current knowledge gaps. Paediatric respiratory
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Guery, B., Poissy, J., El Mansouf, L., Séjourné, C., Ettahar, N.,
Lemaire, X., ... & Caro, V. (2013). Clinical features and
viral diagnosis of two cases of infection with Middle
East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus: a report of
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Mohd, H. A., Al-Tawfiq, J. A., & Memish, Z. A. (2016).
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