Experts cast doubt on Saudi push for Middle East virus vaccine

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Experts cast doubt on Saudi push for Middle East virus vaccine

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - Official talk in Saudi Arabia of racing to develop a vaccine against a deadly new virus may be a way to reassure a fearful population, but it is scientifically wide of the mark and makes little sense in public health terms. Experts in virology say the biochemical know-how is there to create a vaccine against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, but question why authorities would want to spend millions immunizing an entire population against a disease that has affected only a few hundred people. "There are enormous problems with the idea of a MERS vaccine," said Ian Jones, a virologist at Britain's Reading University who has been following the outbreak from the start. Would you vaccinate the whole population when only a tiny number of people seem to be susceptible?" MERS first emerged in April 2012 and has caused more than 250 human infections, including 93 deaths, across the Middle East as well as in Europe, Asia and North Africa.

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