MERS does not constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC): Emergency committee
In a follow-up to a report July 6, the second meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the WHO Director-General under the International Health Regulations met today and to determine whether the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) constitutes an a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
Image/CDC
According a World Health Organization (WHO) statement, the Committee reviewed and deliberated on information on a range of aspects of MERS-CoV, which was prepared or coordinated by the Secretariat and States in response to questions presented by Members during the first meeting.
It is the unanimous decision of the Committee that, with the information now available, and using a risk-assessment approach, the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) have not at present been met.
Watch the video of the MERS press briefing
A PHEIC is defined as “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response”.
However, the committee members did offer technical advice for consideration by WHO and Member States on a broad range of issues, including improvements in surveillance, lab capacity, contact tracing and serological investigation, infection prevention and control and clinical management, travel-related guidance, risk communications, research studies (epidemiological, clinical and animal) and improved data collection and the need to ensure full and timely reporting of all confirmed and probable cases of MERS-CoV to WHO in accordance with the IHR (2005).
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[…] MERS update comes one day after the WHO-appointed emergency committee deemed that MERS-CoV did not meet conditions for a public health emergency of international concern […]