The World Health Organization (WHO) today reported new details about seven recent MERS-CoV cases from Saudi Arabia, six of which had healthcare links.
Healthcare exposure seems to be playing a key role in fueling MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) outbreaks. The cases in today's WHO update were reported by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) between Oct 26 and Nov 1. Since then the country's MOH has announced three additional cases, though no new illnesses were reported today.
Two Hofuf patients are health workers
Of the six healthcare-linked MERS cases detailed in today's WHO report, five were in Hofuf, a city in eastern Saudi Arabia that has been the site of a recent hospital outbreak. The sixth involves a healthcare worker in Riyadh, where a large hospital outbreak has been under way since late July, though reported cases have tapered off considerable.
As many as eight cases since Oct 19 have been linked to an outbreak at the city's Almana General Hospital, according to earlier reports.
Of the Hofuf patients, two are healthcare workers. One is a 28-year-old foreign woman who got sick on Oct 23 after having provided care to a lab-confirmed case-patient in a facility that has been experiencing a MERS-CoV outbreak.
The other is a 36-year-old foreign woman who started having symptoms on Oct 15 after caring for two MERS patients in an outbreak hospital. The younger woman is in critical condition, while the other is listed as stable.
Three patients in Hofuf also appear to have been infected in the hospital outbreak, according to the WHO report. They include an 81-year-old man who had been admitted earlier for an unrelated condition, a 54-year-old man with a chronic health condition who got sick 2 days after discharge from the outbreak hospital, and a 61-year-old man who got sick with MERS-CoV while hospitalized for an unrelated condition.
The oldest man is in critical condition, the 54-year-old is listed as stable, and the 61-year-old died from his illness.
One infected health worker in Riyadh
Meanwhile, Riyadh's hospital-linked illness involves a 24-year-old female foreign healthcare worker. She got sick on Oct 23 and is in stable condition in home isolation. The WHO said the woman is a contact of an earlier MERS patient, another healthcare worker, a 47-year-old foreign woman.
The only patient in today's WHO update who doesn't have healthcare exposure is a 56-year-old woman in Riyadh whose infection was detected during contact tracing in connection to an earlier case-patient from the city, a 60-year-old woman whose exposure to the virus is still under investigation. The younger woman is asymptomatic and is on home isolation.
The 7 cases lift the number of MERS reports the WHO has received to 1,618 cases, most of them from Saudi Arabia. The latest deaths lift the global fatality count to at least 579.
See also:
Nov 13 WHO statement
Nov 13 Saudi MOH statement
Oct 29 CIDRAP News story "Saudi Arabia notes new MERS case; WHO details 12"
