Health

MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome)

♤ MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) is a severe pneumonia-like respiratory disease caused by a virus.

♤ MERS causes high fever, cough, and severe shortness of breath. The infection is thought to be spread by close contact with an infected person.

♤ MERS is different from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Most importantly, the MERS virus does not appear to be as easily spread between people, whereas the SARS virus spreads very easily.

♤ Why in News: After Ebola, medical practitioners are turning their attention to yet another disease called the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) which was first reported in Saudi Arabia two years ago. It’s like SARS, swine flu and avian influenza which has caused a global scare, resulting in several casualties.

ZMapp:

Z Mapp an experimental biopharmaceutical drug for treatment of Ebola virus.It is currently the only known treatment against the virus. The drug was first tested in humans during the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak, but has not been subjected to a randomized controlled trial to determine whether it works, and whether it is safe enough to allow on the market.