Jennifer Yang Interviews Dr. Tony Mounts – WHO Coronavirus Expert

Photo Credit WHO

 

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Jennifer Yang – the Toronto Star’s Global Health Reporter - is in Geneva this week covering the 66th World Health Assembly, under a UN Foundation press fellowship.

 

Today she sat down with Dr. Tony Mounts, WHO's expert on the novel coronavirus, to talk about the ongoing investigation into the MERS-CoV outbreak in Saudi Arabia.

 

Jennifer provides her take on Dr. Margaret Chan’s opening remarks and her interview with Dr. Mounts, in her blog on http://thestar.blogs.com/worlddaily/.

 

Jennifer covers a lot of important ground with Dr. Mounts. Rather than try to excerpt a portion, I’ll simply invite you to follow the link and read Jennifer’s account in its entirety.

 

05/20/2013

In Geneva, a sit-down chat with WHO's coronavirus expert

Jennifer Yang is the Star’s global health reporter. She previously worked as a general assignment reporter and won a NNA in 2011 for her explanatory piece on the Chilean mining disaster. This week she is blogging from Geneva, where she is attending the World Health Assembly under a UN Foundation press fellowship. Follow her on Twitter: @jyangstar

Saudi Arabia, The Novel Coronavirus, and Risk Communications

Coronavirus – Credit CDC PHIL

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It’s been just over 24 hours since Saudi Arabia first announced their discovery of a number of novel coronavirus (nCoV) cases (see hCoV-EMC: Saudi Arabia Reports 7 Cases, 5 Fatal). Disappointingly, their announcement contained pathetically little in the way of useful epidemiological information.

 

Since then journalists, public health experts, and bloggers have expressed deep concerns over what appears to be ongoing and  serious deficits in the Saudi government’s reporting of cases.

 

Maryn McKenna addressed these issues in New Diseases And National Transparency: Who Is Measuring Up?, yesterday Helen Branswell sought reaction from Dr. Keiji Fukuda in her article Saudi Arabia announces 7 new coronavirus cases, and I had a few choice words of my own in WHO: Novel Coronavirus Update – Saudi Arabia.

 

Today, we’ve got a `twofer’;  one of my favorite journalists, Jennifer Yang of the Toronto Star, interviewing one of my favorite experts, Dr. Jody Lanard (of The Peter M. Sandman Risk Communication Website) on the obvious lack of transparency being shown by the Saudi government in regards to these (and earlier) coronavirus cases.

 

Follow the link below to read the latest on the novel coronavirus, and extended remarks from Jody Lanard.

 

New SARS-related virus kills five more in Saudi Arabia

By: Jennifer Yang Global health reporter, Published on Thu May 02 2013

Saudi Arabia has revealed seven new cases of a novel coronavirus, including five deaths — a surprise announcement that is raising transparency concerns and seems to have caught even the World Health Organization off-guard.

 

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But to Dr. Jody Lanard, a Brooklyn-based risk communication expert who has consulted for the WHO in the past, it appears the Saudi government has been demonstrating a lack of transparency since the new coronavirus first came to public attention in September.

 

“Having analyzed communication as an expert in so many disease outbreaks, Saudi Arabia is showing all the signs of hiding information (and) delaying reports of information,” Lanard said. “We had the SARS outbreak in 2003 and we saw the repercussions of its widespread reach that partly resulted from delayed information — that’s a lesson that should already be learned.”

(Continue . . . )

More On the Taiwan H7N9 Case

 

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Earlier today we learned of the first confirmed H7N9 case outside of Mainland China, in Taiwan Confirms First Imported Case Of H7N9.  The case involved a 53 year-old man who recently visited Jiangsu Province, and is now hospitalized in critical condition in Taiwan.

 

 

Via Jennifer Yang, Global Health reporter for the Toronto Star, we’ve a report that includes reaction from Gregory Hartl, spokesperson for the World Health Organization, regarding the three HWC (Health Care Worker) who have reportedly shown signs of illness after having contact this patient.

 

A small excerpt from a much larger article:

 

Taiwanese health authorities are also currently tracking 139 contacts of the sick patient and aside from the three healthcare workers, none have yet to develop any symptoms. Three other health workers who failed to wear protective gear also appear healthy so far.

 

“Until the healthcare workers are tested, and it’s known for sure whether it’s an H7N9 infection, we can’t speculate,” Hartl said in a telephone interview. “There have been other cases of reported (influenza-like illness) in healthcare workers in mainland China and they’ve all turned out negative.”

 

While we are always on the lookout for any signs that exposed healthcare workers might be getting infected, this is still cold & flu season in Taiwan, and so upper respiratory symptoms are not uncommon.

 

We’ll simply have to await laboratory testing (which may require more than one test), before we know the cause of their symptoms.

Follow the link below to read Jennifer’s full article:

 

Bird flu: Taiwan reports first imported case of ‘one of most lethal viruses’

By: Jennifer Yang Global health reporter, Published on Wed Apr 24 2013