Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Infection

Megan Reilly

MERS-CoV has officially become a notifiable infectious disease in WA, as of today, following publication of a notice in the Government Gazette yesterday, MERS-CoV-notifiable (gazettal-HE402) 1July 2014

An accompanying notice (HE401) also designated MERS-CoV to be  a “dangerous infectious disease”, as defined in the Health Act 1911. The latter designation allows the use of formal powers, as outlined in section 251 of the Act, to order public health disease control measures such as isolation, quarantine, and testing, should this be necessary.

The Public Health Laboratory Network (PHLN) is currently formulating laboratory case definitions which will in turn be incorporated into Communicable Disease Network Australia (CDNA) public health surveillance definitions.  In the meantime, notification should continue to be based on the following updated interim WA case definition, which is derived from WHO recommendations.