September 24, 2012 12:36 pm
Just Before the Hajj, Two Patients Contract SARS-Like Virus
Any large gathering of people, such as this one for Hajj in 2008, has the potential to facilitate the transfer of disease. Photo: Al Jazeera English
Two different men, one a Saudi Arabian national and the other a man from Qatar who had been on vacation in Saudi Arabia, have been diagnosed with a disease caused by a new type of coronavirus, says the World Health Organization. The family of coronaviruses includes viruses that cause common colds and the virus that causes SARS; these two patients suffered from symptoms like breathing problems and kidney failure. These are the only two confirmed cases of people being affected by the new virus, according to the Canadian Press, though researchers are working on pinning down a third potential case.
However, extra worry is lobbed on top of the emergence of this new virus because of the timing of the outbreak. From October 24 to 27, during the Hajj, one of the most important Islamic traditions, people from all the world over will congregate in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
With so many people traveling into a dense region, the emergent coronavirus could see ideal conditions for it to propagate throughout the population. At the end of the festivities, all of those people returning home could act as a vector for global transport of the disease. Any massive event like this—think of the Olympics or the World Cup—can aid in the spread of a disease, and as journalist and author Maryn McKenna, who specializes in emergent diseases, points out, the Hajj has the potential to distribute this new one very efficiently.
All that being said, there are still very important questions about the threat posed by the virus itself. The emergence of this new type of coronavirus is not by itself justification for inflated worry; SARS was bad, killing roughly 800 people. The common cold, for healthy adults, is typically benign. At this point, the WHO “does not recommend any travel restrictions,” and Branswell adds that “[w]hile word of a coronavirus outbreak immediately brings SARS to mind, there is too little information at this point to say whether this is anything more than a blip on the viral radar.”
In a release, the United Kingdom’s Health Protection Agency says that scientists have yet to see signs that the virus can jump from person to person. They also add that there are still a lot of unknowns. If it is found that the new coronavirus can be transmitted between people, however, then that would be a cause for more worry.
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Once the next Spanish Flu type pandemic sweeps the planet, there won’t be enough doctors and hospitals to treat the very sick and dying. Medical professionals and workers are likely to be among the worst hit and unable to ply their skills, even if they dared to mix with the desperately ill with a lethal illness that, in essence, spreads through the air we all breathe.
It’s been a century since the last pandemic that wiped out huge swathes of people, and the next one, according to the experts, is long overdue. Worse yet, many of the medicines developed since the last pandemic no longer work.
When the pandemic eventually hits, probably sooner than later, don’t be surprised if the very sick persons next to you in the emergency ward of a hospital are members of Congress, Wall Street gurus, Mr. Romney, his family, and their physicians — only a fraction of which, including ourselves, will survive.
Bottom line is that whether health service charges are paid privately or out of the public purse during the next big pandemic, there will be few medical wizards, if any, to help you and me survive, never mind them submitting a bill.
Comment by Rudy Haugeneder, Canada — September 24, 2012 @ 2:22 pm