“International health experts began urgent talks on the Middle East coronavirus (MERS) on Tuesday amid concerns about larger numbers of milder infections possibly going undetected, the [WHO] said,” Reuters reports. “The United Nations agency announced last Friday that it was forming an emergency committee, to convene this week, to prepare for a possible worsening of the SARS-like virus,” the news service notes (Nebehay, 7/9). “The 15-member committee, which includes Saudi Arabia’s deputy health minister Ziad Memish and health officials from six other predominantly Muslim countries, met via teleconference [Tuesday] to decide whether [the virus] represents a public health emergency of international concern,” Bloomberg Businessweek writes. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan “last convened [an emergency] committee to battle the 2009 global flu pandemic,” the news service notes (Bennett, 7/9). “Representatives from all nine countries [affected by the virus] made presentations by video link [on Tuesday], said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl,” CBC News states (7/9). “The group plans to meet again on July 17,” Bloomberg adds (7/9).