MERS-CoV IHR Emergency Committee
The IHR Emergency Committee concerning Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS_CoV) met on 10 occasions from July 2013 to July 2015. At no time did the Committee conclude that the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern had been met. The WHO Director-General accepted the assessment of the Committee and technical advice was offered to States on broad range of issues.
Statements
Chair
Vice-Chair
Dr Theresa Tam
Chief Public Health Officer, Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada
Rapporteur
Dr Salah T. Al Awaidy
Communicable Diseases Adviser to Health Affairs, Ministry of Health, Muscat, Oman
Members
Professor Tjandra Yoga Aditama
Director, Post Graduate School, YARSI University Jakarta Indonesia
Dr Abdullah Al-Assiri
Assistant Deputy Minister of Health for Preventive Health, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Dr Hussain Al Rand
Assistant Undersecretary for Health Centers and Clinics, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Dr Martin Cetron
Director, Division of Global Migration and Quarantine, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Professor Claudia Gonzalez
Psychologist and Researcher, Center of Epidemiology and Public Health Policy, Faculty of Medicine, Clínica Alemana-Universidad del Desarrollo, and Partner-Director Epi-Sur Consultores, Santiago de Chile, Chile
Dr Paata Imnadze
Head of Scientific Board, National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia
Dr Fadzilah Kamaludin
Head, Office of Deputy Director General of Health (Public Health), and Director, Epidemic Intelligence Program (Field Epidemiology Training Program), Ministry of Health, Putrajaya, Malaysia
Dr Bjørn-Inge Larsen
Secretary General, Ministry of Health and Care Services, Oslo, Norway
Ziad Memish
Infectious Disease Consultant and Director, Research Centre, King Saud Medical City, Ministry of Health Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Professor Babacar Ndoye
Independent Expert-consultant, Infection prevention and control, Antimicrobial resistance, Dakar, Senegal
Professor Mahmudur Rahman
Director, Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research and National Influenza Centre, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Professor Maha Talaat
Director, Infection Control Unit and Deputy Director, Disease Prevention, Global Disease Detection and Response Center, United States Naval Medical Research Unit, No.3, Cairo, Egypt
Dr Oyewale Tomori
Member of the Global Virome Project Leadership Board
Professor Maria Zambon
Director, Reference Microbiology Services, Public Health England, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Advisors
Dr Anthony Evand
Chief, Aviation Medicine Section, International Civil Aviation Organization, Montreal, Canada
Dr Bernard Faye
Consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Camel project, Center for Agriculture Project, Al-Kharj, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Senior Scientist, French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development
Professor David Shu-Cheong Hui
Professor, Stanley Ho Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Director, Stanley Ho Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Professor Marion Koopmans
Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for emerging infectious diseases at Erasmus Medical Centre, Netherlands
Ms Karen Tan
Senior Director, Public Communication Division, Ministry of Communications and Information SINGAPORE
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove
Head, Outbreak Investigation Task Force, Center for Global Health, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
Deceleration of interests
Members
Professor Babacar Ndoye
Professor Ndoye recently retired and is in the process of setting up a training programme in Senegal in the areas of hygiene and infection control, to be hosted by an institute of higher learning. This programme involves no financial investment on his part or any relationship with industry.
Professor Maria Zambon
Professor Maria Zambon is the Director of Reference Microbiology Services at Public Health England (PHE), an Executive Agency of the UK Department of Health (previously known as the Health Protection Agency (HPA)). Professor Zambon has worked for a UK government agency since 1994. In this role and all previous roles for UK government agencies, it is necessary to liaise with industry on a range of topics, including vaccines and antivirals, occasionally involving collaborative research and development agreements (CRADA) which fund laboratory staff and consumables. There has been no personal funding to Professor Zambon. Previously (up to 2009), the HPA received significant funding through CRADAs with vaccine manufacturers, including Sanofi, Novartis, CSL, Baxter and GSK. Roche currently provides funding through CRADA for development of analytical methods to detect the emergence of antiviral resistance. In 2012, Professor Zambon received a bursary for airfare and accommodation from the American Society of Microbiology for the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy to deliver a keynote address.
Advisers
Professor Malik Peiris
Professor Peiris has provided services to three different pharmaceutical companies as a consultant and steering committee member between 2012 and 2014 and has received remunerations in this regard. None of these consultancies pertained to MERS-CoV.
Professor Marion Koopmans
Professor Koopmans has declared that scientists at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam have submitted a patent application for the discovery of MERS-CoV to which she is not a beneficiary.
The interests summarized above do not give rise to a conflict of interest such that the experts concerned should be partially or totally excluded from participation in the Emergency Committee. However, following WHO's policy, they are disclosed within the Committee so that other members were aware of them. All other Members and Advisers of the Emergency Committee declared no relevant interests.
Many of the Emergency Committee Members have extensive governmental experience and expertise – and consulting with WHO – in the areas that are the subject of the Emergency Committee proceedings, which were considered very relevant and important for the challenging tasks faced by the Committee.
Dr Abdullah Al-Assiri- Member of Emergency Committee from the sixth meeting, replacing Dr Ziad Memish
Dr Ziad Memish, Member of Emergency Committee from first through fifth meetings.
Professor David Shu-Cheong Hui, Professor Malik Peiris, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove- Adviser of the Emergency Committee from the ninth meeting.