MERS virus deadlier than SARS, expert says
Posted Jun 20, 2013 08:19:46 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TORONTO – A Toronto researcher who rose to international prominence for her work on the SARS outbreak is among the experts sounding the alarm over a similar deadly virus.
Dr. Allison McGeer, who co-wrote a study on the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), said this new virus is closer to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) but more deadly.
The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“This is the equivalent of what SARS was in November of 2002. Had the Chinese been able to talk about it, had we had the tools that we have now to study these viruses, we might well not have had global SARS hit,” Dr. McGeer said.
She said at this point, she doesn’t think it’s a world-wide threat, but cautions that it’s early.
Dr. McGeer, who is in the Middle East for a meeting about the virus, told the Toronto Star, it appears people are infectious earlier in their illness than SARS patients were.
In terms of the chances of it actually spreading and living in Canada, Dr. McGeer said it is “low.”
“[We] simply don’t know enough about this virus — we haven’t seen enough of it yet — to know what it’s going to do,” she said.
So far, MERS, has infected 64 people and killed 38 — mostly in Saudi Arabia, but the virus has spread to parts of Europe.
There are no travel bans in place so far.
In 2003, SARS, which hit Toronto particularly hard, infected thousands of people all over the world and led to more than 900 deaths. It had hit Toronto particularly hard.
MERS information
