"Should You Worry?" is a new feature in which we take a much-covered
health issue and ask local experts how concerned you should actually be.
The health concern: A severe respiratory illness with the cumbersome name Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV.
Why it's in the news: Since April of last year, the illness has
sickened at least 55 people, killing more than 30.
Though most of the cases have been in Saudi Arabia, it's grabbed headlines, as it's one of a deadly group of illnesses known as coronaviruses.
Another coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome -- also known as SARS -- caused an international panic in 2003, sickening more than 8,000 people and killing nearly 775. Fears about the disease led many terrified people to don surgical masks to protect themselves.
Like SARS, MERS-CoV causes such symptoms as fever, cough and shortness of breath and can be deadly.
Though there have been no cases in the United States at press time, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said it has the potentional for a public health emergency.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations stress that all doctors should remain vigilant for any respiratory symptoms in people who have recently traveled to the Middle East.
Should you worry?: "I think, at this point in time, you really shouldn't be worried at all," said Carolyn Bender, a registered nurse and infection preventionist at Greenwich Hospital.
She said outside of a handful of cases in Europe, the disease hasn't spread outside the Middle East. However, other experts think you should worry at least a little bit.
Many of the cases that have popped up in France, Italy and the United Kingdom have been in people traveling abroad, and nurses and doctors said there's still a chance that the virus could turn up here.
Since Connecticut is relatively close to major airports in New York, people from here could be particularly vulnerable, said Kristen Borgognone, an infection prevention manager at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport.
"Being close to a hub, where people travel to and from various destinations, we're always concerned about illnesses related to travel," she said.
Dr. Michael Parry, director of infectious diseases at Stamford Hospital, agreed. "We've notified our emergency room to be very vigilant about taking a travel history of people who come in with respiratory symptoms," he said. "We know what SARS did, and this behaves a little similarly."
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Typically, doctors take a travel history of where a patient has been within the past 10 days. However, given rising concerns about the illness, the CDC recently expanded the review period to 14 days.
Though Parry said people shouldn't break out the surgical masks any time soon, it's still a good idea to stay informed about the virus, particularly if you do a lot of traveling overseas. "The spectrum of this illness is still unfolding," he said.
The health concern: A severe respiratory illness with the cumbersome name Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV.
Though most of the cases have been in Saudi Arabia, it's grabbed headlines, as it's one of a deadly group of illnesses known as coronaviruses.
Another coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome -- also known as SARS -- caused an international panic in 2003, sickening more than 8,000 people and killing nearly 775. Fears about the disease led many terrified people to don surgical masks to protect themselves.
Like SARS, MERS-CoV causes such symptoms as fever, cough and shortness of breath and can be deadly.
Though there have been no cases in the United States at press time, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said it has the potentional for a public health emergency.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations stress that all doctors should remain vigilant for any respiratory symptoms in people who have recently traveled to the Middle East.
Should you worry?: "I think, at this point in time, you really shouldn't be worried at all," said Carolyn Bender, a registered nurse and infection preventionist at Greenwich Hospital.
She said outside of a handful of cases in Europe, the disease hasn't spread outside the Middle East. However, other experts think you should worry at least a little bit.
Many of the cases that have popped up in France, Italy and the United Kingdom have been in people traveling abroad, and nurses and doctors said there's still a chance that the virus could turn up here.
Since Connecticut is relatively close to major airports in New York, people from here could be particularly vulnerable, said Kristen Borgognone, an infection prevention manager at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport.
"Being close to a hub, where people travel to and from various destinations, we're always concerned about illnesses related to travel," she said.
Dr. Michael Parry, director of infectious diseases at Stamford Hospital, agreed. "We've notified our emergency room to be very vigilant about taking a travel history of people who come in with respiratory symptoms," he said. "We know what SARS did, and this behaves a little similarly."
\
Typically, doctors take a travel history of where a patient has been within the past 10 days. However, given rising concerns about the illness, the CDC recently expanded the review period to 14 days.
Though Parry said people shouldn't break out the surgical masks any time soon, it's still a good idea to stay informed about the virus, particularly if you do a lot of traveling overseas. "The spectrum of this illness is still unfolding," he said.
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