Healthcare workers are among the latest MERS-CoV patients reported from Saudi Arabia.

WHO, Saudi Arabia update MERS case information

Robert Roos | News Editor | CIDRAP News

Creatas Images

Healthcare workers are among the latest MERS-CoV patients reported from Saudi Arabia.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently recognized the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) case reported recently in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while the latest sketchy reports from Saudi Arabia describe five recent cases there, including three in healthcare workers.
In a Dec 22 statement, the WHO confirmed a MERS case in a 68-year-old UAE man, previously reported by the media. The man had a cough when he was hospitalized Dec 14 for joint replacement surgery, and he was moved to an intensive care unit (ICU) Dec 16 because of rapid deterioration, the agency said. His MERS-CoV infection was confirmed Dec 19.
The patient, who has underlying medical conditions, has no recent history of travel or of contact with animals or other MERS patients, the WHO reported. Investigation of his family and healthcare contacts was continuing.
The UAE case raised the WHO's MERS-CoV count to 166 cases and 71 deaths.
A recent English-language statement from the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) reported four MERS cases, including one death, and appeared to match up with an earlier machine-translated statement that surfaced Dec 20. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) story published today cites five Saudi cases, at least three of which appear to be those cited in the English-language MOH statement.
The latter statement, officially dated Dec 20, reports cases in:

• A 73-year-old Saudi man who succumbed to the illness
• A 53-year-old Saudi man who has chronic illnesses and was in an ICU
• Two "female residents"—foreign nationals—who work in healthcare and had contact with a MERS patient; the statement gives no ages or other details

Today's AFP story cited a statement on the Saudi MOH Web site as the source of its information on the five cases, all of which were reported in Riyadh. They involve:

• A 73-year-old Saudi man who died of the illness
• A 57-year-old Saudi who has chronic illnesses and is being treated in an ICU
• A 27-year-old Saudi health worker
• Two foreign health workers: a 43-year-old woman and a 35-year-old man

Read More Here

Related articles

• Saudi Arabia: Four new MERS cases, one death