Cynthia Goldsmith / Maureen Metc / CDC

Novel MERS coronavirus particles as seen by negative stain electron microscopy.

Every virus needs a catchy name, and now the new coronavirus linked to the Middle East that has infected 40 people and killed half of them has one: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus or (MERS-CoV).

Various scientists have been calling it MERS, but the Coronavirus Study Group, which groups experts from around the world, made it official on Thursday.

“This name is endorsed by the discoverers of the virus and other researchers that pioneered MERS-CoV studies, by the World Health Organization and by the Saudi Ministry of Health. We strongly recommend the use of this name in scientific and other communications,” the group, led by Raoul de Groot of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, wrote in the Journal of Virology.

The issue of naming viruses can be touchy. Usually, countries don’t want their names associated with diseases, and often geographical regions don’t either. That’s why names such as the “Hong Kong flu” aren’t used any more -- now influenza viruses carry genetic names such as H1N1 or H7N9.

The MERS coronavirus is clearly linked to the Middle East, however. All patients have either been in, or have traveled to, Jordan, Qatar or Saudi Arabia -- or they have been infected by travelers from those countries. Cases have been seen in France, Germany and Britain.

Researchers worried about what to name SARS when it broke out in 2003. It was first seen in China, but the World Health Organization finally settled on the name severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. At the time it was named, expert had not yet figured out precisely what type of virus it was.

The new MERS virus is a distant cousin of SARS. Coronaviruses are a big family and they usually cause common cold-like symptoms in people. MERS appears to have come from bats, de Groot’s group reports.

“The novel coronavirus seems most closely related to as yet unclassified viruses from insectivorous European and African bats in the Vespertilionidae and Nycteridae families, respectively,” they write.  It’s unlikely most patients were directly infected by bats, however, the Coronavirus Study Group said.  Bats have probably infected some other animal, which in turn is infecting humans, they said.

But the virus can transmit from person to person, especially in hospitals, and that worries health officials. SARS spread easily in hospitals when it flashed around the world, infecting close to 8,000 people and killing 775 of them, before it was stopped.

There’s no vaccine against MERS and antiviral drugs don’t appear to be of much use against it, either. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told U.S. hospitals to take strict precautions if someone shows up with symptoms and has recently traveled to the Middle East. Health care workers in contact with such patients should wear special face masks, gloves and gowns and follow other protocols to protect themselves and other patients.

The World Health Organization says there are more questions than answers about MERS. “We know this virus has infected people since 2012, but we don't know where this virus lives,” WHO says in a statement on its website.

“We know that when people get infected, many of them develop severe pneumonia. What we don't know is how often people might develop mild disease. We also know that most of the persons who have been infected so far have been older men, often with other medical conditions. We are not sure why we are seeing this pattern and if it will change over time,” WHO added.

“The greatest global concern, however, is about the potential for this new virus to spread.”

Related:

• SARS-like virus spread to health workers
• Saudi Arabia confirms four new coronavirus cases
• New virus likely spreads person to person
• US safe so far from two new viruses

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

A package of recalled Kotex tampons is seen in an undated handout photo.

Kimberly-Clark is recalling about 1,400 cases of Kotex tampons because of plastic tubing that may be contaminated with bacteria that could cause dangerous infections, a spokesman for the Dallas-based firm said Monday.

The recall applies to limited lots of Kotex Natural Balance Security Unscented Tampons Regular Absorbency distributed to Walmart, Fry's and Smith's stores in eight states. They were sold in 18-count and 36-count boxes with SKU numbers of 15063 and 15068.

The tampons were recalled after company tests detected the bacterium Enterobacter sakazakii, which could cause health problems, including vaginal infections, urinary tract infections, pelvic inflammatory disease or other, potentially life-threatening infections. Women with existing health problems, including cancer, HIV or compromised immune systems, are at higher risk for infection.

Kimberly-Clark has received no reports of illness linked to the products, said Bob Brand, the company's spokesman.

A single plastic tube was found to be contaminated with the microbe, sparking the company's action, Brand told msnbc.com.

The plastic tubes supplied with the tampons were manufactured for Kimberly-Clark by a third party, which Brand declined to identify. "This is our responsiblity," he said.

Nearly all of the recalled product has been recovered and is off store shelves, Brand said. The products were shipped between Oct. 29 and Nov. 2. They went to Walmart stores in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas; to some Fry's stores in Arizona; and to some Smith's stores in Utah and Arizona.

For a list of specific lots recalled, click here.

Consumers who have the products should stop using them and contact Kimberly-Clark's consumer office at 1-800-335-6839. Anyone who has been using the products and experiences unusual vaginal discharge, headache, rash, fever, vomiting or abdominal pains, should contact a doctor.

No other Kotex products are affected by the recall and Natural Balance Security Tampons that don't contain the listed SKU numbers or lots are safe to use, the company said.

The toll from listeria-tainted cantaloupe climbed higher again on Wednesday, with 139 sickened and 29 dead in the outbreak that may be the deadliest in U.S. history, health officials reported.

In addition to the reported deaths, one pregnant woman had a miscarriage after becoming infected with any of four strains of listeria bacteria linked to whole, fresh cantaloupes from Jensen Farms of Holly, Colo. Reports of illness have been logged in 28 states.

The outbreak is the worst since a California listeria outbreak in 1985 in which contaminated Mexican-style fresh cheese caused 52 deaths, including many stillbirths, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By other accounts, the cantaloupe crisis may already have matched the adult deaths confirmed in that outbreak. In a New England Journal of Medicine analysis in 1988, investigators said the outbreak caused deaths of 28 adults and newborns and 20 stillbirths or miscarriages.

CDC officials weren't immediately available to comment on the trajectory of the outbreak, which was expected to continue to claim lives and cause illness through the fall. Listeria infections have a long incubation period, so people who ate tainted cantaloupe two months ago may only now be reporting illness, health officials said. The outbreak toll may be slowing, noted Bill Marler, a Seattle food poisoning lawyer who represents several clients sickened by the fruit. But it's still not over.

"I think the hopeful sign is that it's tapering off," he said. "But people are still in the hospital, some in critical condition. Will that number go up? Unfortunately, I think it will."

Dirty equipment, an unsanitary environment and poor storage practicescaused the outbreak at the packing site operated by Jensen Farms, the federal Food and Drug Administration found. It's not clear whether Jensen Farms officials will be required to testify in front of Congress. Members of the Energy and Commerce subcomittee had requested a hearing no later than Thursday, but no hearing has yet been scheduled.

Ed Andrieski / AP

Cantaloupes rot in the afternoon heat on a field on the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo., last month. Whole fruit contaminated with listeria have been blamed for 25 deaths in the worst food poisoning outbreak in the U.S. in a quarter century.

Now that federal investigators have identified dirty equipment, faulty sanitation and bad storage practices at a Colorado farm as the likely cause of a cantaloupe listeria outbreak that has killed 25 people, top U.S. food safety experts say there's one actor in this deadly drama that shouldn't be blamed: The consumer.

No amount of washing, scrubbing, bleaching or peeling would have cleaned cantaloupes contaminated by Jensen Farms' packing practices enough to remove listeria bacteria that has sickened at least 123 people and killed 25 in the deadliest outbreak in a quarter-century.

"There's nothing consumers could have done," said Dr. Doug Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.

Federal Food and Drug Administration officials reported Wednesday that standing pools of water, inaccessible drains, hard-to-clean equipment and failure to cool cantaloupes fresh from the field before placing them in cold storage all likely contributed to the growth and spread of four strains of listeria bacteria at the Jensen Farms packing site in Granada, Colo.

The cold, moist environment maintained over time is exactly what listeria needs to thrive, said Dr. Mike Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and a food safety expert at the University of Minnesota.

In addition, listeria could have been introduced into the packing center from sporadic bacteria in the field or from a dump truck that hauled culled cantaloupe back and forth to a cattle yard and then parked next to where the whole melons were being processed. Cattle are known reservoirs for listeria.

The bacteria clearly contaminated a huge proportion of the more than 310,000 cases of cantaloupe -- between 1.5 million and 4.5 million fruit -- that were recalled by Jensen Farms in mid-September, said Powell.

"Given that 25 people are dead, this was a massive contamination to have that impact," he said.

It's not clear whether people were infected by bacteria that clung to the fruit's porous, bumpy rind, whether the germs somehow migrated into the flesh of the fruit, or whether people spread contamination through the fruit by slicing it with a knife, Powell said. Good hygiene and food safety practices can lessen the chance of infection, but the contamination shouldn't be there in the first place.

"The idea that this is the consumer's responsibility is just nonsense," he said. "What's missing is any verification that individual farmers are doing what they're supposed to be doing."

Preventing the conditions that allowed the outbreak to occur and continue is the primary goal of the FDA's ongoing food safety efforts said the agency's commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg.

“If we’re to have a food safety system that truly prevents foodborne illness, we must all practice prevention,” she told reporters.

That's particularly incumbent on melon growers, who have felt the brunt of consumer fear as sales of cantaloupes have plummeted.

"Don't rely on paperwork if your brand relies on selling safe food," Powell said. "Any commodity is only as good as its worst grower."

Related posts:

Dirty equipment blamed for deadly outbreak in cantaloupe