:00 this Sunday (December 18) Beijing time, the final of Qatar World Cup is about to begin, and Argentina will face the French team, the last World Cup champion. However, at this tense moment of preparation, the French team was in big trouble.
According to foreign media reports, the three main players of the French team - midfielder Rabio, defender , Pamecano and forward Kingsley Koeman were infected with MERS (camel flu). French team head coach Deschamps said they are dealing with it carefully to avoid spread within the team.
What is MERS? On December 17, a reporter from Tianmu News interviewed Pan Hongying, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases of Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital.
According to Director Pan Hongying, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease caused by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). This case mostly occurs in the Middle East. Camel is the main source of virus . It is usually transmitted through close contact with camels, so it is also called camel flu.
Image source: Visual China
"After infection with MERS, symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, and muscle aches will occur. One quarter of patients will have gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhea and vomiting." Director Pan said that MERS is not highly contagious, and most cases occur in the Middle East, especially Saudi , which shows that the virus is not highly contagious, and the mortality rate of MERS is as high as 37.8%. "
Tianmu News found that the last large-scale outbreak of MERS outside the Middle East can be traced back to 2015. According to CCTV reports, in May 2015, South Korea had the first Middle East Respiratory Syndrome patient. In just three weeks, the epidemic spread rapidly in South Korea. Due to negligent prevention and control measures and poor information disclosure channels, the South Korean government's early response was criticized. At that time, more than 2,000 schools were closed, a large number of public activities were cancelled, and the tourism industry was also hit hard. In the end, the epidemic lasted for 7 months before it was obtained. Control, a total of 187 people were infected, 38 people died, and nearly 17,000 people were isolated.
Image source: Visual China
At present, with the adjustment and optimization of my country's epidemic prevention and control policies, the fight against the epidemic has entered a new stage. Many netizens have also subconsciously compared MERS with new coronary pneumonia . So what is the difference between these two diseases?
"MERS's main source of infection is infected camels and MERS patients, and dromedary camels will cough or sneeze. The MERS-CoV virus spreads into the surrounding air, and MERS-CoV can be excreted through the emulsion of dromedary camels, so humans can be infected by contact with dromedary camels or eating dromedary camel milk. MERS can also be transmitted between people through close respiratory droplets and close contact. "Director Pan said that in comparison, the new coronavirus spreads faster and has stronger transmission power. The source of infection is mainly patients and asymptomatic infected persons . But in terms of transmission routes, the transmission route of the new coronavirus is similar to MERS, mainly the transmission of respiratory tract droplets and contact transmission.
. In terms of symptoms, Director Pan told reporters that both of them have respiratory symptoms, including fever, cough, shortness of breath, etc., but the lethality of the new coronavirus is weak. "There are most cases of severe clinical manifestations of MERS. It usually manifests as severe pneumonia, with acute onset and rapid progression of the disease. Most patients (60%) develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shock or even multi-organ failure . Most of the patients with COVID-19 are ordinary and mild patients, showing general fever, fatigue, etc., and there is no obvious pneumonia manifestation. "
Director Pan said that the data shows that the MERS mortality rate is higher, more than 15 times fatal than the new coronavirus, and can cause serious renal failure, which is usually considered to be the main cause of the fatality, and the mortality rate of the new coronavirus is very low. At present, the mortality rate of Omickron has dropped to about 0.1%.
The Qatar World Cup attracted fans from all over the world to watch the game, including many Chinese fans. How to prevent it in the face of hidden viruses? Director Pan suggested that people in the Middle East should pay attention to personal hygiene and hand hygiene, try to avoid contact with people with respiratory infection symptoms, avoid contact with animals and their excrement, use disposable tissues, wash their hands frequently, and reduce contact with local people.For people entering the country from the Middle East, Pan Hongying suggested that if they experience respiratory symptoms such as fever and cough, they should actively inform border inspection and epidemic prevention personnel and cooperate with quarantine. Within 14 days of returning to the country, if you experience fever or respiratory symptoms, you should wear a mask to seek medical treatment in time and take the initiative to inform medical staff of recent travel history and exposure history to avoid taking public transportation.
