Global guidelines have been agreed to help control the spread of the new middle-eastern virus – amid growing fear of the impact of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
MERS-CoV has so far killed 38 people and caused another 30 cases of illness.
Many of the cases have occurred in a hospital in Saudi Arabia, home of the annual Hajj. The disease has been found in nine countries in total.
World Health Organisation experts say they have agreed the guidelines with public health officials from countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.
The agreement means any outbreaks of pneumonia will be investigated for fear they are caused by the virus. Officials have also agreed to report cases to WHO within 24 hours of them being identified.
Officials have also agreed to draw up plans for mass gatherings.
Saudi Arabia announced four more cases of infection over the weekend, including three women health workers, thought to have been infected by patients.
Dr Keiji Fukuda, from WHO, said: "At the moment we have an important window where cases have still been relatively few and human transmission is relatively limited.
“We need to exploit this chance to agree and implement the best public health measures possible across the board for, in so doing, we stand the best chance of controlling this virus before it spreads further."
Leave a Reply