ALERT: KILLER CAMEL FLU SET TO HIT BRITS
SCIENTISTS are racing to find a cure for deadly camel flu amid fears of a pandemic.
The virus has killed one in every three people it has infected.
The illness is similar to SARS – sudden acute respiratory syndrome – leaving patients suffering fever, a cough, diarrhoea and shortness of breath.
It was first reported in the Middle East and linked to camels. But experts now warn it can be transmitted among humans.
Emergency planners have warned a global pandemic could hit the planet at any time, leading to millions of deaths in a similar way to the Spanish flu outbreak at the end of the First World War.
A report into the illness said it was responsible for a total of 513 deaths, including three in the UK.
The Ministry of Defence is carrying out experiments on monkeys to learn more about the virus.
Professor Robert Dingwall, a public health expert at Nottingham Trent University, said: “Camels are the most likely host and there is a theory that it’s been prevalent in the Middle East for many years.
“It is a poorly understood virus. Any work will be to try to understand what the virus is, how it operates and how we might intervene and what drugs might be effective.”
Government records have shown the MoD’s Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) in
Porton Down, Salisbury, has exposed monkeys to the camel flu virus.
They have infected
16 marmosets – 12 in
2017 and four last year – to see how the disease operates and what they could do to tackle it in a mass outbreak among humans.
All the animals infected with the virus – known as MERS-CoV – either died or were put down at the end of the experiment. How the virus leaps from animals to humans is unclear.
Prof Dingwell continued: “It is one of the viruses that public health officials keep an eye on in the sense that there have been a small number of deaths of people, mainly in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. It has a high mortality rate if you get it but it is quite hard to get.”
Medical staff tasked with caring for victims must wear protective clothing. In 2015 parts of Manchester Royal Infirmary closed when two patients arrived with symptoms after visiting the Middle East. Tests found it was not camel flu. The death toll has been highest in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Qatar, Oman and Iran. While 19 people died in South Korea in 2015. An MoD spokesman said: “Dstl is responsible for developing new vaccines, therapies and treatments that can save military lives and benefit civilians.
“Dstl is committed to reducing animal experiments and only applies for licences if the research aims cannot be achieved without animal experiments.”