Experts cast doubt on Saudi push for Middle East virus vaccine

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* Saudis seeking vaccine for deadly virus * Experts say this is technically possible * Question whether vaccine makes public health sense By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - Official talk in Saudi Arabia of racing to develop a vaccine against a deadly new virus may be a way to reassure a fearful population, but it is scientifically wide of the mark and makes little sense in public health terms. Experts in virology say the biochemical k**w-how is there to create a vaccine against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, but question why authorities would want to spend millions immunising an entire population against a disease that has affected only a few hundred people. "There are e**rmous problems with the idea of a MERS vaccine," said Ian Jones, a virologist at Britain's Reading University who has been following the outbreak from the start. Would you vaccinate the whole population when only a tiny number of people seem to be susceptible?" MERS first emerged in April 2012 and has caused more than 250 human infections, including 93 deaths, across the Middle East as well as in Europe, Asia and **rth Africa.

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