Dr. Theresa Tam has been named to a special panel to advise the World Health Organization on the new MERS Corona virus. The virus has infected 88 people in the last year and claimed the lives of 44 people.
Dr. Keiji Fukuda is the WHO’s assistant director-general for health security and the environment. He explained in an interview the formation of the committee, “This is a situation which makes us uneasy, but we can’t say that it’s a full-blown global pandemic. But we would like to have it assessed by other people too and have that inupt.”
Dr. Tam, one of the leaders of Canada’s Public Health Agency, has had extensive experience in both respiratory diseases and pandemic preparedness. She participated in the team’s first tele-conference today.
The 15 member-group includes Dr. Martin Cetron, head of global migration and quarantine at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and Dr. Ziad Memish, deputy minister of health for Saudi Arabia, the country that has reported the majority of MERS cases.
One of the first tasks of the panel is to decide if the MERS outbreak is a public health emergency under the provisions of a global health treaty called the International Health Regulations.
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