ECOWAS health ministers meet in Bamako on coronavirus

Bamako, Mali (PANA) - An emergency meeting of health ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the preparation and response to the Covid-19 (coronavirus) outbreak opens on Friday in Bamako.

Under the chairmanship of Malian Health Minister Michel Sidibé, the meeting is organised by the West African Health Organization and will allow participants to discuss health guidelines, approaches and strategies, as well as the financial and material means to overcome this dreaded epidemic.

Covid-19, formerly known as 2019-nCoV, is a new coronavirus discovered in December 2019 in China, according to health sectors. Coronaviruses, which are named after the crown shape of the proteins that coat them, make part of a vast family of viruses, some of which infect different animals, others humans.

These viruses, they say, are likely to cause a wide range of diseases.

In humans, these diseases range from common colds to severe lung infections, which are responsible for acute respiratory distress.

Several thousand people, including in China, have the disease and more than 1,000 have died from it.

-0- PANA GT/JSG/BBA/MA 14Feb2020