By Joseph Varghese/Staff Reporter

Qatar is safe from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (Mers-CoV) and the situation in the country is very stable, a senior official of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) said yesterday.
“So far, we have had only two cases in the first four months of this year. We are monitoring the situation with vigil and attention,” said Dr Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani, director, public health at SCH.
He was speaking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of a workshop on ‘Mers-CoV and One Health Campaign’, organised by the SCH.
The official said that there is proper and efficient surveillance of the disease at all levels. “We also have strong control of the procedures in place at the hospitals. All this is helping us to prevent any outbreak of the disease but at the same time we are very vigilant. We hope that we can understand the situation better in the coming months.”
“We are also closely working with several ministries. It has paid off very well as the number of Mers cases have gone down considerably,” he said.
Dr Sheikh Mohamed said that there are special arrangements for people going on Umrah and Haj. “All of them have to undergo mandatory vaccination for meningitis and influenza. There is also an arrangement for treatment as well as hospital facilities in Makkah and around in case anyone falls sick.”
The official also said that the camels in Qatar are free from the Mers virus. “We keep monitoring them closely. We visit the camel herds from time to time and educate their caretakers on how to deal with the animals. For the last one year, we did not have any case of
infection from camels.”
Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop, Dr Sheikh Mohamed said that the workshop comes after extensive consultations and meetings at different levels in the context of
animal-human interface.
“Though each of those meetings managed to focus on one of the angles of the disease, this meeting recognises the need to integrate efforts of the health and veterinary institutions through presenting the latest research findings on the potential role of animals in the epidemiological cycle of Mers-CoV,” he added.