26 May 2013 (18:06 UTC-07 Tango 25 May 2013)/16 Rajab 1434/05 Khordad 1391/17 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711

“We do not know the full geographic spread of this virus.”-Keiji Fukuda, UN World Health Organization

The United Nations World Health Organization is now demanding that all countries share data on new diseases.  The concern is that many countries are not willing to share info because they might lose valuable patent rights.  Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO, said new international health regulations should protect such copyrights: “WHO collaborating centers, all of them, will not take intellectual property right to stop the sharing of information and to stop or delay the development of diagnostic tests or serology tests.”

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia claims there was a three months delay in addressing the new coronavirus/MERS outbreak, because a European company was arguing over who gets the patent rights!

Officials with the Erasmus Medical Center, in the Netherlands, fired back saying “It is clearly a misunderstanding…”, pointing out that “….a virus cannot be patented, only specific applications related to it, like vaccines and medicines…”

Saudi Arabian health officials are now sending MERS samples to the United States.  Researchers are sure MERS evolved from the bat coronavirus.  The samples being sent to the U.S. include samples from bats and other non-human animals.

It’s been revealed that a hospital in Saudi Arabia might be the source for an outbreak that took place in April.  The Al-Moosa General Hospital, in Hofuf, saw 22 cases, with ten people dying.  No new cases reported since the beginning of May.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it already has MERS samples from sources in the United Kingdom, and has already “….developed MERS-CoV molecular diagnostics and has distributed testing kits to domestic public health laboratories through the Laboratory Response Network as well as to other groups.”

Currently there are about 44 cases worldwide, with 22 deaths.