Job Discussion Forums

[AbeCross]

Sadly, this story just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Initially, most of the cases were in Al-Ahsa/Hofuf. It seems to be spreading further and further all the time.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-27176601

[veiledsentiments]

Egypt just discovered its first case too. The person had come from Saudi Arabia.

[plumpy nut]

Gentlemen lets hurry up with a vaccine.

[rollingk]

Keeping with the usual pattern, ome Saudis are already blaming imported, foreign camels.

[08mansoor]

Do you think the mers virus will have ESL teachers/University lecturers running out the door and discouraging others from working in KSA. I'm thinking that it might be a big deal and it's somewhat discouraging living in KSA for that reason. Is it possible that KSA will have to start giving teachers hazard pay to come to KSA?

[veiledsentiments]

I doubt it as few TEFLers are around the animals. I don't recall teachers bailing out of Asia during the SARS thing... did they?

If it becomes commonly transferred person to person to person to person, and the numbers get significantly bigger... maybe. Right now the majority of cases come from direct contact with farm animals - most likely camels. There has been human to human passing, but it seems to stop.

But as always, the virus is getting smarter...

VS

[gorkomi]

Yes

[veiledsentiments]

Hard to know what to believe on topics like this, but what I read was that while some health care workers have caught it... it hasn't been found to pass to a third person. Perhaps it weakens as it passes through a secondary host? It seems to require extensive exposure - either working with the animals daily... or working with patients daily... it is known to have passed from a mother to child.

So, it doesn't appear to be highly contagious and easy to get from casual single exposure... thus far. The Haj does present a scary scenario if the virus mutates into something more contagious.

VS

[gorkomi]

I think so

[Pikgitina]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/04/s-arabia-reports-eight-new-mers-deaths-201442719659500561.html

"Among the latest infections were four medical staff at a single hospital in Tabuk in the country's northwest.

Panic over the spread of the virus among medical staff in the western city of Jeddah led to the temporary closure of a main hospital's emergency room.

At least four doctors at Jeddah's King Fahd Hospital resigned earlier this month after refusing to treat MERS patients for fear of infection."

[plumpy nut]

[Pikgitina]

Swine flu, 2009:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/jul/04/hajj-swine-flu-mecca

"While some of you will not care for Muslims or hajj, despairing at people's fascination with superstitious ritual, there are interesting ethical questions involved. It might be blasphemous to suggest this, but in the interests of global health, perhaps hajj should close for 2009."

[gorkomi]

Plumpy nut, I'm not sure if that was sarcasm or sincere faith. Inshallah isn't good enough when there's an epidemic boiling. If God wouldn't allow death, the 100 who've died would still be here.

No one in their right mind should be traveling in a horde of however many go each year. Mecca really ought to close shop and put up a sign "No Hajj this year. Come back later."

[gorkomi]

http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-mers-death-toll-rises-126-074058454.html

Are you foreigners, especially in Jeddah, deeply concerned about this? 463 verified cases and 126 people dead.

What do you do, walk around with masks and hand sanitizers in public all day?

If you got this thing, I'm imagining they wouldn't let you fly out of the country. So if your family is overseas, you die alone?

[veiledsentiments]