Earth Watch - Epidemic Hazards
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CIDRAP
Robert Roos 
News Editor
News Editor
Jun 12, 2013 (CIDRAP News) – Saudi Arabia, epicenter of MERS-CoV
(Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) outbreaks, reported three
more cases today, one of them fatal, while media reports said French
authorities ruled out two suspected cases.
Meanwhile, a Canadian expert who recently traveled to Saudi Arabia
to help investigate the cases there said more international
collaboration will be needed to figure out the source of the virus,
according to a Canadian Press report.
In a brief statement today, the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH)
said a 21-year-old "resident" of the country died of a MERS-CoV
infection and that two Saudi citizens are sick. The 21-year-old was
living in Hafr Al-Batin, a city in the Eastern province but about 300
miles north of Al-Ahsa, site of a recent hospital-centered outbreak.
The young man died after being admitted to a hospital intensive
care unit (ICU) at the beginning of this week, the MOH said. The
ministry did not list his home country or give any other details about
him. World Health Organization (WHO) officials have expressed concern
that guest workers from developing countries such as the Philippines
could contract the virus in Saudi Arabia and carry it back home.
The MOH said one of the other new cases involves a 63-year-old
Saudi woman who lives in the Eastern region, has chronic diseases, and
is in stable condition. The third case, the statement said, is in a
75-year-old Saudi who lives in Al-Ahsa governorate and is being treated
in an ICU. The patient, whose gender was not listed, also has chronic
health problems.
The three illnesses raise Saudi Arabia's MERS-CoV count to 43
cases and 27 deaths. Unofficially, they raise the global total to 58
cases and 33 deaths.
In France, MERS-CoV was ruled out in illnesses in two men who had
recently been in Saudi Arabia, according to reports from Agence
France-Presse (AFP) and other media outlets. The suspected cases were
first reported yesterday.
"The virus was quickly ruled out as an explanation for the
symptoms of one of them, and tests cleared the other one," the AFP story
said. The men were reported to be hospitalized in Tours.
France has had two confirmed MERS-CoV cases, with one death. The
first and fatal case was in a man who got sick after vacationing in
Dubai in April; another man caught the virus while sharing a hospital
room with him.
In Canada, Allison McGeer, MD, a Toronto infection control expert,
said a greater international effort will be needed to learn where
MERS-CoV hides in nature and how it makes its way into humans, according
to the Canadian Press report, published yesterday.
McGeer was part of a team led by the WHO that returned from Saudi
Arabia Jun 9 after spending several days investigating the MERS-CoV
situation.
Daniel Jernigan, MD, MPH, of the US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) was also part of the team, but he couldn't discuss
the mission, CDC officials told CIDRAP News yesterday.
McGeer said the Saudi government has done much to investigate
MERS-CoV cases involving human-to-human transmission and sporadic cases,
"but it's very clear that a great deal more work needs to be done,"
according to the Canadian Press story.
Among the more than 50 MERS-CoV cases so far, a good share have
resulted from person-to-person transmission, and relatively few
apparently resulted from contact with the virus's source in nature,
McGeer said. Disease detectives must investigate the latter to identify
the source.
Because those cases are spread over several countries, coordinating the search has been difficult, McGeer said.
****************************************************************************
Global News
WHO mission says there is no evidence MERS is spreading widely in Saudi Arabia
By Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
The team, pulled together by the World Health Organization, concluded a six-day fact finding mission to Saudi Arabia on Sunday.
Canadian SARS expert Dr. Allison McGeer was a member of the mission.
The group says given that cases of the new infection have been picked up in a number of European countries, health-care workers everywhere should be on the look out for MERS cases.
They say hospitals treating unexplained cases of pneumonia would consider that MERS may be the cause of infection.
To date there have been 55 cases of infection with the MERS virus, which is a cousin of the SARS coronavirus; 31 of the cases have died.
All of the infections have had a link to four countries on the Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. The lion’s share of the cases have been reported by Saudi Arabia.
The team’s report, posted on the website of the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional office, says three patterns of infections have been noted to date.
Related articles
- Saudi Arabia: 3 new MERS cases, 1 death (crofsblogs.typepad.com)
- Saudi Arabia: Another MERS death in Al-Ahsa (crofsblogs.typepad.com)
- Source: Situation in Saudi Arabia Nearing Explosion (dogmaandgeopolitics.wordpress.com)
- MERS-CoV Death Toll Rises To 31 (medicalnewstoday.com)
- Epidemic Hazard - Saudi Arabia, MultiProvinces, [Provinces of Eastern and Al-Qassim] UPDATE : victims from the new SARS virus have reached 25. Another 39 cases confirmed and 1300 suspected cases reported (familysurvivalprotocol.com)
- MERS Not Spreading Widely In Saudi Arabia, Experts Believe (medicalnewstoday.com)
- Saudi Arabia reports new MERS coronavirus case in teen, 54th case globally (theglobaldispatch.com)
- Saudi Arabia: Three of 5 new MERS cases already dead (crofsblogs.typepad.com)
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