World Health Organisation convenes urgent talks on Mers virus

The World Health Organisation has announced it had convened emergency talks on the enigmatic, deadly Mers virus, which is striking hardest in Saudi Arabia. The move comes amid concern about the potential impact of October’s Haj pilgrimage, when millions of people from around the globe will head to and from Saudi Arabia. WHO health security chief Keiji Fukuda said the Mers meeting would take place on Tuesday in the form of a telephone conference of officials from affected countries and global experts. Fukuda told reporters it was a “proactive move”. “It means that if in the future we do see some kind of explosion, or some big outbreak, or we think the situation has really changed, we will already have a group of emergency committee experts who are really up to speed, so we don’t have to go through a steep learning curve,” he said. The meeting could decide whether to label Mers an international...