Health Ministry: No MERS Cases in Lebanon, Measures are Sufficient

The Ministry of Health on Wednesday confirmed that no cases of infection with the deadly MERS coronavirus have been recorded in Lebanon until the moment, reassuring that its preventative measures are sufficient.

“I call on the Lebanese not to panic over the MERS coronavirus,” Health Minister Wael Abou Faour said at a press conference, following media reports that a case was registered at Beirut's Hotel Dieu hospital.

“As a result of scientific discussions, it turned out that the ministry's measures are sufficient. They are based on boosting preventative monitoring and collecting samples,” Abou Faour added.

“Until the moment, all samples have tested negative and there is an awareness campaign at the airport,” he said.

The minister noted that there is a need to raise the awareness of travelers and train hospitals on “combating epidemics and devising plans to confront them.”

“The state has a specialized laboratory to examine all suspected samples and it is performing its duties in this regard,” Abou Faour declared.

He stressed that “until the moment, not a single case of infection with the MERS coronavirus has been recorded in Lebanon,” noting that “the alleged case that was reported today had nothing to do with the MERS coronavirus.”

“Several suspected cases are being probed every week and we're dealing with them away from the media spotlight in order not to spark panic,” the minister revealed.

“The World Health Organization has not recommended any additional measures in Lebanon and we will be brave enough to inform the Lebanese about any confirmed infection,” he underlined.

Earlier on Wednesday, head of the emergency unit at Hotel Dieu hospital Antoine al-Zoghbi denied media reports that a case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus was recorded at the hospital.

“No cases of the coronavirus were recorded at the hospital,” al-Zoghbi told the Voice of Lebanon Radio (100.5).

The Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) had earlier reported that a Saudi was taken to Hotel Dieu in Ashrafieh for suffering from the MERS coronavirus.

The quarantine center at the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport also denied recording any cases of the deadly virus at the airport, VDL (100.5) said.

Al-Jadeed TV later quoted the Hotel Dieu hospital as saying that lab tests conducted on the patient for suspicions of infection with the coronavirus had turned out to be negative.

In earlier remarks, Abou Faour had said that “there are no confirmed cases of the coronavirus at the said hospital” and that “tests were being run for confirmation.”

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

A man has died in Jordan after being infected with the MERS virus, media reports said Wednesday, in the kingdom's second fatality from the disease this year and fourth since 2012.

MERS emerged in 2012 and is mostly focused on Saudi Arabia, where it has killed 115 people, according to health officials there.

Saudi Arabia's number of MERS infections has also reached 414, the world's highest tally, the ministry reported.

One case has been reported last week in the U.S. state of Indiana, and the announcement marks the first time a patient with the infection has been identified in the United States, reports said.

There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments for MERS, a disease with a mortality rate of more than 40 percent that experts are still struggling to understand.

Some research has suggested that camels are a likely source of the virus.

In April, U.S. scientists said they have made progress toward developing treatments for the virus, and scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston have identified natural human antibodies -- proteins made by the immune system that recognize foreign viruses and bacteria -- against the virus that causes MERS, Agence France Presse said.

D.A./Y.R.