Saudi Arabia
# 8623
Overnight the Saudi Gazette carried a story that not only demonstrates the seriousness of the MERS outbreak, but also illustrates dearth of information being provided by the Saudi MOH. First an excerpt from the report, then some digging into the Saudi MOH announcements.
MERS kills two doctors in Jeddah
JEDDAH – Two specialist doctors from Jeddah were among the latest fatalities of MERS coronavirus.
Dr. Tarek Waleed Rajikhan, dermatologist at King Fahd Hospital (KFH), and Dr. Ahmed Al-Ghunaim, who was working at a private hospital in the city, died after being infected with the deadly virus. Tarek’s body was buried on Tuesday.
Waleed Rajikhan, father of Tarek and a consultant doctor at KFH, said that his son, aged 29, was admitted to the hospital one month ago after he got infected with the disease. He is survived by his wife and a two-month-old daughter.
Although we don’t have an age for Dr. Al-Ghunaim, Dr. Rajikhan’s death appears to have been announced (without identifying him as a Healthcare worker) in yesterday’s MOH update, unceremoniously described as:
A 29-year-old man passed away on May 12, 2014. He was previously recorded as a confirmed case in Jeddah. May Allah have mercy upon him.
It is likely that one of the other fatalities mentioned yesterday was Dr. Al-Ghunaim, but we haven’t enough information to identify him. One would think that the death of two doctors from MERS, in the same city and at roughly the same time, would merit more than a passing mention.
But in Saudi Arabia, I guess one would be wrong.
I’ve spent some time trying to match this `previously recorded confirmed case’ to an entry on FluTracker’s MERS Case Line List, but have been unable to find a corresponding record. Given the haphazard reporting on cases by the Saudi MOH, this isn’t completely surprising.
But it is disappointing.
As is the fact that In recent days KSA’s daily report has been strangely inconsistent in mentioning asymptomatic cases, or identifying any cases as being Healthcare Workers (HCWs), both of which are pertinent pieces of the MERS puzzle.
Yesterday the Saudi MOH Announced a `Package’ Of MERS Control Measures, that was both broad and vague at the same time. While one has hopes they will follow through, over the past year the KSA’s MOH has also promised – but has yet to deliver on – a number of research projects, including an oft requested Case Control Study (see case-control study protocol Jul 2013).
Another telling point, the World Health Organization, which reports on new cases once they are officially reported to them by each member state’s MOH, has posted 11 MERS updates over the past 30 days (from UAE, Jordan, Greece, etc), but not one of them deals with Saudi Arabia – which accounts for the majority of recent cases.
Exactly why updates have not appeared in a month has not been disclosed, but it suggests a major lack of communications on the part of the Saudi’s.
All of which may help explain the level of exasperation (and downright skepticism) heard in some of the reporter’s questions regarding the Saudi’s past (and future) response to the MERS threat at today’s WHO IHR Emergency Meeting press conference. (Audio Link)
A sign that health and science journalists are a savvy group, have been down this road before, and tend not to suffer fools gladly.
