Media release

From:

***A Full recording of the briefing can be found below***

*BACKGROUND BRIEFING – Wednesday 24 June 2015 at 11:00 am AEST Online*

The World Health Organization is yet to declare it a worldwide public health emergency, but officials are being warned to stay alert, as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak continues to spread through South Korea. 172 cases of the disease are now confirmed, with the death toll rising to 27 on Monday. The disease has also jumped borders with Thailand becoming the fourth Asian country to register a case, after South Korea, China and the Philippines. So what is MERS, where did it come from and should Australia be worried? Join us as two infectious disease experts discuss the latest in MERS news.

The briefing will discuss the following issues:

• What is Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)?
• What is the situation in South Korea?
• Is Australia at risk?

This briefing is part of our 'Getting your head around' briefing series, and is supported by funding from Inspiring Australia.

SPEAKERS:

• Professor Sharon Lewin is Director of The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
• Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake is a practising infectious diseases physician at the Australian National University Medical School

DATE: WED 24 JUNE 2015
START TIME: FINISHED
DURATION: Approx 45 min
VENUE: Online

NB:  The AusSMC generally runs two different types of media briefings:
NEWS BRIEFINGS – Where new research or data will be released as part of the briefing
BACKGROUND BRIEFINGS – Where experts discuss an issue which is in the news or an issue we consider newsworthy, but no new research or data is being released