(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) With the World Health Organization (WHO) confirming that many laboratory-confirmed secondary cases of MERS-CoV have been linked with transmission among healthcare workers in the region, medical staff in Oman say they are taking all precautions and following guidelines set by the UN body. The virus led to the death of a paramedical worker in the UAE, raising concerns and calls for more precaution.
A nurse at a hospital in the sultanate said, ''We have heard about the death of a healthcare worker from MERS in UAE. I was a little concerned initially, and the country is on alert. We are following Ministry of Health (MoH) guidelines on precautions and flu vaccines.''
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, another nurse said, ''I have been closely following the reports coming in. I am taking the necessary precautions. All we can do is follow the guidelines without negligence.''
Genny, another nurse said, ''MERS is similar to the H1N1 virus. Healthcare workers have a challenge that they need to accept and face. It is always best to take a throat swab if a MERS case is suspected.''
Genny also said that people should avoid direct contact with camels and with other people as far as possible. ''A doctor should be consulted if a member of the family has flu-like symptoms.''
In a written response to Muscat Daily, WHO has emphasised, ''It is important that appropriate infection prevention and control measures should be established and followed rigorously by all healthcare workers in all healthcare settings irrespective of the type of care they are providing. The health facilities should act as a place for safe healthcare and not as an amplifier of infections. Based on the currently available information on transmission risk of MERS-CoV, standard precautions plus other additional measures such as droplet and contact precautions need to be applied based on an assessed risk for providing care to patients with MERS-CoV infection.''
WHO has said that healthcare associated transmissions in healthcare facilities continue to occur.
''This remains a particular challenge for control of this epidemic. The specific types of exposure resulting in transmission of these infections in the healthcare setting are currently unknown.
''The majority of healthcare workers who have been laboratory-confirmed for MERS-CoV have reported mild or no symptoms and were discovered through contact testing around known cases.''
It added that the experience from epidemics of emerging infectious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), various viral haemorrhagic fevers, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and the MERS-CoV, demonstrates how easily healthcare facilities can act as amplifiers of new pathogens and diseases in the community if there is no effective infection prevention and control programme in place.
(Names withheld to protect i
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