DOHA- The alarms went off in Qatar after public health experts alerted about possible cases of a supposed “camel flu”, a virus that worries soccer fans who traveled to the headquarters of the last month World Cup.
The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (HSA) urged its doctors to monitor people who have traveled to the World Cup and present symptoms of fever, respiratory difficulties, vomiting, cough and diarrhea, symptoms associated with the respiratory zoonosis that bears the name of “camel flu”.
A camel keeper from the AlKuwari family celebrates after winning first prize at the Mzayen World Cup, a camel competition in the Qatari desert during the soccer World Cup, in Ash-Shahaniyah, Friday, December 2, 2022.
“Doctors and public health teams must be especially alert to the possibility of MERS in travelers returning from the World Cup,” details the HSA text, quoted by The Sun. “The risk of infection for UK residents is very low, but may be higher for people exposed to specific risk factors in the region, such as camels.”
The entity also warned about “person-to-person transmission”.
It is the Middle East respiratory syndrome or MERS-CoV, caused by a type of coronavirus, a “rare but serious respiratory disease” that is spread “through close contact with camels that carry the virus or an infected person, or by consume uncooked camel meat or unpasteurized camel milk,” said the Australian Ministry of Health, which will also test its newly arrived Qatari citizens.
The MERS virus, which was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012, can cause severe illness with high mortality. Approximately 35% of patients diagnosed with the disease died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Cases have been reported in countries in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia since it was detected.
Studies have revealed that people become infected by direct or indirect contact with infected dromedaries and have shown the capacity for human-to-human transmission, although these cases occurred mainly in healthcare settings.
The National Liaison Center for MERS in Qatar has been investigating the disease for months after registering two cases of the virus in March and April, one of them fatal. These were the first two cases of the virus since February 2020.
Both cases had had frequent close contact with dromedaries and had consumed raw camel milk in the 14 days prior to the onset of symptoms.
“The notification of these cases reiterates the need for global awareness of MERS-CoV, but does not change the general evolution of the risk,” the WHO said in a statement, ahead of the World Cup.
Alerts about this virus resounded in Qatar after two French team players were diagnosed with flu symptoms, reported the French Football Federation, which ruled out that they had coronavirus.
Due to illness, defender Dayot Upamecano and midfielder Adrien Rabiot, two starters, will miss the semifinal against Morocco on Wednesday.