The coincidence of the World Cup with the traditional "camel pageant" in Qatar creates ideal conditions for a resurgence of MERS, the deadliest coronavirus ever transmitted to humans, an international research team has warned.
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, informally known as "camel flu", is transmitted by Arabian camels and has affected about 2,600 people since its discovery in 2012 in Saudi Arabia.
35% of patients die, a mortality rate that far exceeds the related Covid-19 and SARS coronaviruses.
Although it spread to several countries in the past decade, and was detected in people returning from the Middle East in eight European countries, MERS has so far not caused major epidemics.
However, the two events held simultaneously in Qatar pose "an increased risk of transmission and globalization of MERS-CoV," estimates a study published in the peer-reviewed Lancet Global Health.
Bats
MERS coronavirus is thought to originate from bats, but is most commonly transmitted by Middle Eastern camel bats.
The virus, the research team writes, cannot be ruled out as endemic in Qatar, where two cases, one fatal, were recorded in May.
The World Health Organization and Qatari authorities made sure to warn visitors of the risk by asking them to avoid contact with camels and consumption of milk and rhino meat.
"Yet these messages are easily overlooked in the festive and racing atmosphere," write the researchers, led by Esam Azar of King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia."
"In addition, there is inevitable contact between imported and local camels participating in the pageant, camel owners and spectators of the two events. Consumption of popular Qatari food, which includes camel milk products, is also unavoidable."
Researchers are asking health authorities around the world to be vigilant for suspicious cases among travellers returning from Qatar.
As a reminder, the MERS outbreak that caused 184 cases and 36 deaths in 2015 in South Korea came from a traveler returning from the Middle East who eventually infected those around him while waiting in a Seoul hospital.
"The risk of visitors to Qatar returning infected to their countries remains real," the researchers write.
And according to a Cypriot study in 2020, if the same person is simultaneously infected with MERS and Covid-19, the two viruses could potentially recombine and give rise to hybrid strains.
Source: in.gr
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