Emerging MERS: Do public health personnel know about it and prepare well to counter it?

Dear Sir,

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is an important emerging infection that is already a worldwide public health concern. The year 2015 saw the emergence of MERS in East and Southeast Asia. ^[1],[2] The infection emerged in Korea, China, and Thailand and it has become a burning issue in public health. In Thailand, the first documented case occurred in June 2015. Here, the authors report a simple survey on local public health workers. The authors have raised the following two questions:

1. Do you think you have complete knowledge on MERS?
2. Do you think you are well prepared for MERS?

The questions were posted on the Facebook group of Master’s Degree of Science (Public Health), Surin Rajabhat University when the disease newly emerged in Thailand. After 2 weeks, the authors collected the replies. Interestingly, there was no reply indicating that public health workers had complete knowledge on MERS or that they were well-prepared for MERS. Based on this fact, it is interesting to note that despite the importance of the emerging disease and the public health ministry doing its best to provide information to local public health workers, they have not exhibited the best knowledge and attitude. In responding to any new emerging disease, a good plan and a system to check the compliance of public health workers while treating the disease are very important.

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/1755-6783.162666