News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Italy announced its first Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) case today, in a man who recently spent time in Jordan, site of the first known MERS illnesses, according to media reports.

(CIDRAP News) – World Health Organization (WHO) officials and others at the World Health Assembly (WHA) complained today that restrictions on the use of virus samples are delaying the investigation of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), according to news service reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Saudi Arabia reported today that a foreigner died yesterday of a MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) infection, while health officials in Jordan offered new details—some of them puzzling—about a hospital cluster of cases that occurred there in April 2012.

(CIDRAP News) – A World Health Organization (WHO) expert has expressed concern that guest workers in the Middle East could carry the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) to India and the Philippines, according to a media report, while a few more details emerged about three Tunisian cases reported yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – A media report today said the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has reached Tunisia, killing one man and infecting two of his relatives, while Saudi Arabia has reported another death and a new case since May 17.