MERS in Europe: which risks?

The Ecdc released the Rapid Risk Assessment on Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (Mers CoV), which reported that Europe is still at risk of an importation of MERS-CoV. Such a risk may also increase due to the increasing number of visitors that will move to the EU to Saudi Arabia in October, to join the Hajj pilgrimage.

So far, twelve cases have been reported outside of the Middle East: United Kingdom (4), Italy (1), France (2), Germany (2) and Tunisia (3), while the number of new cases per month in Saudi Arabia has increased tenfold since April 2013.

New studies on the potential animal reservoirs of MERS-CoV are available; nevertheless, how virus is transmitted remains unclear. The Ecdc document also provides a number of recommendations for those that are going to travel to Middle East, particularly to Saudi Arabia.

Source: Epicentro