Coronavirus – Credit CDC PHIL
# 8108
This morning the World Health Organization published a GAR update on the 4 MERS cases announced last Friday (see Saudi Arabia Announces 4 New MERS Cases (1 Fatal)) – since then, the Saudi MOH has announced five additional cases.
Of note, out of the nine new cases announced in the past week, five have been reported as being asymptomatic health care workers (HCWs).
At this point, after over 15 months and the experience gained treating 140+ cases, one would hope that healthcare facilities in Saudi Arabia are employing adequate infection control precautions to prevent this sort of transmission.
Yet we continue to see indications of nosocomial transmission.
And while mild or asymptomatic infection would seem to be a good thing (and for the person infected, it is), the number of these cases we’re seeing among known patient contacts suggest that the virus may be able to spread stealthily – and under the surveillance radar – in the community.
Which could help explain why sporadic severe cases – seemingly without exposure history - continue to pop up on the Arabian peninsula.
But, again on the plus side, more mild and asymptomatic infections helps to drive the case fatality rate down. But until good seroprevalence studies can be conducted in these countries, attempts to describe the actual incidence and spread of the virus remains more guesswork than science.
Here then is this morning’s update. Follow the link to read it in its entirety.
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update
Disease outbreak news
27 December 2013 - On 20 December 2013, WHO has been informed of four additional laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Saudi Arabia.
Two cases are female health workers from Riyadh who have not reported any symptoms.
The third case is a 53 year-old male from Ryadh with underlying chronic diseases. He was hospitalized on November 26 and is currently receiving treatment in an intensive care unit. He had no exposure to animals and no travel history outside Riyadh region. He had contact with a confirmed case.
The fourth case is a 73 year-old male from Riyadh with underlying chronic diseases who died on December 18, three days after being hospitalized. He had exposure to animals but no travel history.
Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 170 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 72 deaths.
