The World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday that the outbreak of a puzzling disease found mainly in the Middle East is not a global health emergency, AP reported. Since 2012, the respiratory illness known as MERS or Middle East respiratory syndrome, has sickened more than 500 people and killed 145. Some experts say the spread of MERS is worryingly similar to the 2003 global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS, which infected about 8,000 people in 2003, killing nearly 800. MERS is genetically related to SARS.
