23 June 2013 (02:25 UTC-07 Tango)/14 Sha’ban 1434/02 Tir 1391/16 Wu-Wu (5th month) 4711

The UN World Health Organization is sounding an international warning for the new MERS virus.  Since September 2012, the UNWHO has been notified of 68 cases in which 38 people have died. That’s more than a 50% kill rate.

More than 100 health officials from the Middle East, North Africa and Europe attended a meeting from Thursday through Saturday, discussing the implications of a MERS global pandemic.  They agreed to prepare to cooperate with surveillance, communications, laboratory diagnostics, and infection control to include mass gatherings preparation: “Mass gatherings are a stress test for public health. Crowds, and the infrastructures that support them, can be an ideal setting for outbreaks of disease.”-UN World Health Organization

The mass gatherings event everyone is worried about is the upcoming pilgrimage to Mecca, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).  Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world will converge on Mecca, and return home.  KSA is ground zero for this deadly MERS outbreak.

KSA has confirmed more MERS cases, including medical personnel who got infected while attending victims of MERS.