Source Dr. Mackay’s VDU Blog
# 8590
The changing of the guard at the Saudi Ministry of Health 2 and 1/2 weeks ago (see Saudi Minister Of Health Replaced) brought some immediate, and well-received, changes in the way that MERS case data was reported publicly. Suddenly, instead of getting 1 sentence statements on each case, devoid of any real detail, we were getting much more detailed reports.
And in the land of Flublogia, there was much rejoicing.
But over the past couple of weeks - even as those reports have improved in terms of graphics and general layout – vital bits of data have slowly vanished.
For several days I’ve remarked on the lack of Health Care Workers (HCWs) reported in their daily reports, even though they were featured prominently in reports up until a week ago. Suspiciously, we continue to see people of `working age’ – reported as contacts of a known case – listed as being infected, but we can only now guess at their relationship to the patient.
While I would guess that ongoing nosocomial transmission of the virus to HCWs has been both an embarrassment to local officials (some of whom, have already lost their jobs over it) and an impediment to keeping willing hospital workers, the problem doesn’t go away simply by applying the rubber end of the pencil.
The rate of infection of HCWs – and some idea of their compliance with recommended infection control procedures – can tell us a lot about how the virus is transmitting in a hospital environment, and what needs to be done to stop it.
Dr. Ian Mackay takes a look at that, and a not-so-short list of other gaps in the data in his most recent blog, where he updates his world map of MERS and his daily case trend graphic in:
Snapdate: MERS-CoV by date 20-Apr:08-May [UPDATED]
For several days this week, we watched as the Minister of Health in Lebanon denied the existence of any MERS cases in his country, only to finally admit (after persistent internet rumors) that yes, one patient had been treated and released from a local hospital (see CIDRAP Lebanon has first MERS case).
In this internet age, it isn’t as easy as it once was to `manage’ bad news.
There are simply too many inter-connected eyes, ears, cell phones, and twitter accounts to try to control the message. Eventually either the truth, or far too often - a worse internet version, spawned from the vacuum of missing data - emerges.
Either way, whatever temporary discomfiture that full disclosure might induce usually pales in comparison to the long-term damage caused by attempts to `massage’ the data.
Hopefully governments around the globe now dealing with the MERS virus won’t have to re-learn this lesson the hard way.
