Disease

Chikungunya Disease Outbreak in Haiti

According to Ronald Singer, a spokesman for Haiti’s health ministry, at least 1,529 cases of the chikungunya virus have been confirmed. Of these, about 900 of them, were found in the west department, where the capital of Port-au-Prince is located. Another 300 cases were confirmed in northwestern Haiti.

This is up dramatically from the 14 confirmed cases just less than a week ago.

MERS emergency meeting held by World Health Organization

A panel of experts at the World Health Organization is debating whether the increase in MERS virus cases in the Arabian Peninsula and its global spread amount to a "public health emergency of international concern" that warrants greater awareness and precautions.

Worldwide, the MERS virus has sickened more than 530, including 145 deaths since September 2012, according to WHO. It was in late March that the 200-cases mark was crossed.

"It's pretty clear we're not seeing all of the cases, we're not hearing about all of the cases and also we're now seeing seeding from places like Saudi Arabia to other countries," said Dr. Michael Gardam, director of infection prevention and control at the University Health Network in Toronto.

Symptoms of Middle East respiratory syndrome include cough, fever and sometimes fatal pneumonia. It is caused by the MERS coronavirus, a cousin of the SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus that killed around 800 people worldwide after first appearing in China in 2002. Coronaviruses are also a cause of the common cold.