Fans in Qatar World Cup are warned about Camel Flu
1 min read
This year’s World Cup could spread more than simply “football fever.”
Experts supported by the World Health Organization worry that the deadly relative of COVID, the “camel flu,” may also spread.
Over the past ten years, Qatar has had dozens of cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
Up to one-third of those who contract it pass away.
Eight potential “infection risks” that could possibly emerge during the four-week competition were mentioned by disease specialists, with MERS being one of them.
The two most likely risks were listed as being covid and monkeypox.
A group of academics said in a paper published in the journal New Microbes and New Infections that the World Cup “unavoidably poses infectious disease hazards.”
This extended to Qatar and its neighbours, according to Professor Patricia Schlagenhauf, an epidemiologist with the WHO’s Collaborating Centre for Travellers’ Health.
Saudi Arabia, where MERS was initially discovered ten years ago, is bordered by Qatar.
Because so many people have travelled to Qatar to watch the tournament, the experts worried that diseases would potentially be transmitted to nations like Britain and the US.
For the group stages, 5,000 England and Wales supporters are reportedly travelling to the Arab nation.
They represent a tiny portion of the 1.2 million spectators anticipated in Qatar for the historic competition.
Only five MERS cases have ever been reported in Britain, with the most recent case being in a traveller from the Middle East in August 2018.
Health officials believe there is a possibility of human-to-human transmission.
The virus, which is related to the one that caused the Covid epidemic, is assumed to have camels as its natural host.
Health officials already advise that visitors to the area refrain from touching the creatures as a result of this.
The latest warning from infectious disease experts also advised against eating undercooked camel meat and drinking camel milk or urine.
Reference: Daily Mail The Sun
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