A deadly virus that emerged in the Middle East in 2012 was discussed by health and infectious disease experts at the World Health Organization, considering whether it should be constituted as a "public health emergency of international concern," Reuters reported.
More than 500 patients in Saudi Arabia alone have been reported to have been infected with the disease.
The virus, which causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS infections in people, has spread throughout the region in sporadic cases and into Europe, Asia and the United States.
Its death rate is around 30 percent of those infected.
"Experts meeting at the United Nations health agency's Geneva headquarters would consider whether a recent upsurge in detected cases in Saudi Arabia, together with the wider international spread of sporadic cases, means the disease should be classed as an international emergency," Reuters reported.
"Global health regulations define such an emergency as an extraordinary event that poses a risk to other WHO member states through the international spread of disease, and which may require a coordinated international response."
The conclusions of the meeting would be announced by Keiji Fakuda, WHO's assistant director general for health security, at a news conference later on Tuesday, the WHO said.
MERS, which causes coughing, fever and sometimes fatal pneumonia is a coronavirus from the same family as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
In 2002, around 800 people worldwide were killed after SARS first appeared in China.
Since the virus has been linked to camels by scientists, Saudi authorities warned on Sunday that anyone working with camels or handling camel products should take extra precautions by wearing masks and gloves.
The WHO's MERS emergency committee is the second to be set up under WHO rules that came into force in 2007, years after the 2002 SARS outbreak. The previous emergency committee was set up to respond to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Reuters reported.
