Eastern Mediterranean health journal = La revue de santé de la Méditerranée orientale = al-Majallah al-ṣiḥḥīyah li-sharq al-mutawassiṭ
-
East. Mediterr. Health J. · Jan 2013
ReviewNovel coronavirus: the challenge of communicating about a virus which one knows little about.
Following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) event in 2002/2003, the Worl Health Organization (WHO) developed outbreak communications guidelines. With the emergence in September 2012 of a novel coronavirus, WHO's public communications response was initiated and planned in light of these guidelines and 5 principles of trust, transparency, announcing early, listening and planning. This review describes WHO's communication response to the novel coronavirus event'and its efforts to provide early, accurate information via various media to keep the public appraised of the situation, and its commitment to continued communication on an ongoing basis.
-
East. Mediterr. Health J. · Jan 2013
Novel coronavirus infections in Jordan, April 2012: epidemiological findings from a retrospective investigation.
In April 2012, an outbreak of acute respiratory illness occurred in a public hospital in Zarqa city, in Jordan; 8 health care workers were among the 11 people affected, 1 of who later died. The cause of the outbreak was unknown at the time and an epidemiological investigation including laboratory testing carried out immediately afterthe outbreak was inconclusive. ⋯ This paper describes the epidemiological findings of retrospective investigation carried out in November 2012 and highlights the likelihood of nosocomial transmission of nCoV infection in a health-care setting. A total of 2 laboratory-confirmed and 11 probable cases were identified from this outbreak of whom 10 were HCWs and 2 were family members of cases.
-
The novel coronavirus disease outbreak in Saudi Arabia in 2012 predominately affected males and those living in urban areas. Since September and October 2012, when the first 2 cases were published, a total of 15 confirmed cases have been reported. All but 2 have been linked to conuntries of the Arabian peninsula; Saudi Arabian nationals accounted for a majority, 8 in all, and only 1 case was female. ⋯ Although transmission of the virus to health-care workers was suspected in Jordan's April 2012 outbreak, similar clusters have not been found in Saudi Arabia's hospitals, nor have additional cases been indentified through retrospective tracing of exposed health-care workers. Two family clusters have been identified, 1 in Riyadh and 1 in Manchester, England. A second Riyadh family cluster is being investigated.
-
East. Mediterr. Health J. · Jan 2013
Epidemiological characterization of P. aeruginosa isolates of intensive care units in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
This study aimed to characterize Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates in 2 intensive care units in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. P. aeruginosa isolates from patients' and staff hands and environmental samples were typed using antibiotyping and ERIC-PCR. In Egypt, isolates from suction apparatus tubing and drainage containers (A7) and AV tubing (A8) were linked to those from patients who had these antibiotypes. ⋯ In Saudi Arabia, patients' isolates had ERIC VIII and XI patterns linked to suction apparatus tubing and AV machines. In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, ERIC typing gave higher discriminatory indices (0.801 and 0.785 respectively) than the antibiotyping (0.7123 and 0.728 respectively). ERIC was superior to antibiotyping and should be used in tracing sources of infection.