Over the past decade, the world has repeatedly learned about diseases that are about to destroy humanity. Swine and bird flu, SARS, Ebola … It seems that all these diseases have been more or less managed. And now a new attack is the MERS coronary virus. What is this - a new global challenge to humanity or … a horror story?
From animal to man
Most of the dangerous diseases that have arisen in recent years are the result of human contact with animals - birds, pigs, cows. AIDS and Ebola most likely developed after too close interaction (shall we say) between man and monkey.
The MERS virus, aka Middle East respiratory syndrome, aka Arab SARS, became known in 2012. There are two versions of the onset of the disease. According to the main one, the virus was transmitted to humans from camels. Studies have shown that almost 90% of dromedaries (one-humped camels) in Saudi Arabia are infected with MERS. At the same time, the animals themselves do not get sick, they are only carriers.
According to the second version, Egyptian bats transmitted the coronavirus to humans. Virus samples taken from these animals are almost identical to samples taken from sick people. However, now the source is not even so important. Scientists around the world are sounding the alarm and looking for a way to stop the epidemic, which, according to many media reports, threatens to destroy our civilization.
Promotional video:
Worse than "big brother"
In many ways (modes of transmission, symptoms) MERS resembles its older brother - SARS, better known to us as SARS. True, unlike him, it affects not only the lungs of the sick person, but also causes renal failure.
In Saudi Arabia, about 400 cases of MERS have been identified since 2012. And more than 100 people have died. Really serious statistics! In the same Saudi Arabia, four doctors were fired, who refused to treat patients with MERS because of the danger of becoming infected.
The country's authorities even built three special centers where they treated exclusively people infected with corona virus. At the same time, the body of a person who has had MERS does not develop immunity against it and can again pick up this sore.
And now MERS has come to densely populated (unlike Saudi Arabia) South Korea. The number of cases immediately went to hundreds. The virus has already spread to Thailand, with several cases reported in Europe. What is this, the beginning of a pandemic and the end of humanity?
Billions are at stake
Let's figure it out. Firstly, when we talk about people with MERS, we mean only cases of officially confirmed diagnosis. After all, the disease in symptoms at first resembles the usual ARVI. As it turned out, many patients with MERS … simply suffered it on their feet, not even suspecting that they were terminally ill.
Only those who have already begun to have complications went to the hospital. And these are most often people with already weakened immune systems - the elderly, diabetics, HIV carriers … But even among them in Korea, for example, the mortality rate from MERS reaches only 14%. Quite comparable figures with mortality from common flu and complications from it, at least among people with weakened immunity.
The mortality rate for some other pulmonary diseases (tuberculosis, purulent pneumonia) is even higher. And if we take in absolute numbers, then the usual flu annually takes thousands of times more lives than MERS, SARS, swine and bird flu, and even Ebola combined. Why does panic arise?
Experts believe that it is artificially created by research and pharmaceutical companies. The first - for the sake of government grants to research "a new threat to humanity." The second - they produce conventional antiviral drugs, but advertise them as a means that, perhaps, will be able to save all of us from a "terrible disease." Frightened people run to pharmacies and in horse doses buy up, in fact, ordinary anti-flu.
So, as they say, even if there were no MERS, it should have been invented. So that someone can make billions. Don't panic, gentlemen!
According to the latest news in South Korea, 36 people have died from the new virus, and there were a total of 186 cases. As of July 12, no new cases have been identified. This gave rise to talk about a possible official announcement of the victory over the infection in Korea. Considering that the last time a case of a new patient appeared was on the 4th of July, the second of August was named as the likely date for the official announcement of the disappearance of MERS.
Andrey LESHUKONSKY