UN warns countries to bolster fight against MERS

The UN health agency Wednesday warned countries to bolster their guard against the MERS virus, which has killed 152 people in Saudi Arabia and is causing alarm as it spreads elsewhere.
The World Health Organization said that a meeting of its emergency committee, which groups medical and policy experts from around the globe, had flagged a significant increase in concerns about the potentially fatal Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS).
"The committee indicated that the seriousness of the situation had increased in terms of public health impact, but that there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission," the WHO said.
The committee's concerns "centred on the recent sharp rise in cases, systemic weaknesses in infection prevention and control, as well as gaps in critical information, and possible exportation of cases to especially vulnerable countries," it added, according to AFP.