A World Health Organization (WHO) report today on nine recent MERS cases in Saudi Arabia implies that the virus spread in hospitals in Hofuf, which accounts for many recent Saudi cases, and Taif.
Also today, the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) reported yet another new case in Hofuf, involving a 64-year-old Saudi man who is not a healthcare worker and is in stable condition. Officials are looking into whether he had contact with other MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) patients.
Seven Hofuf cases
The WHO report, which covers seven cases in Hofuf and two in Taif, suggests that seven patients became infected while hospitalized for treatment of other conditions. Another patient is a healthcare worker who may have caught the virus from a MERS-CoV patient she cared for. And the ninth patient may have become infected through exposure to camels.
The WHO statement covers cases of which it was informed from May 26 to 30. Four of the nine cases were fatal. The patients range in age from 43 to 74 years, and 5 are men. Hofuf is in northeastern Saudi Arabia, not far from Bahrain and Qatar.
One of the seven Hofuf patients is a 26-year-old female, non-Saudi healthcare worker who helped care for a MERS-CoV patient on May 22 and 23 and then got sick herself on May 26, the WHO reported. She has no other MERS risk factors and is currently in stable condition.
The other six Hofuf patients fell ill with MERS after being hospitalized for unrelated conditions for periods ranging from a few days to nearly 3 weeks, the report shows. Their illness-onset dates ranged from May 22 to 27.
The WHO does not specify whether all the Hofuf patients were treated in the same hospital, but it says that three of the non-healthcare worker patients were treated in rooms or wards where other MERS patients had been treated earlier.
The Hofuf patients who died were two women, ages 57 and 50, and a 70-year-old man. Two others, a 43-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman, are in critical condition, while the others are stable, the WHO said.
Taif cases
The WHO description of the two cases in Taif, in southwestern Saudi Arabia, implies that one patient got sick because of exposure to the same hospital environment as the other patient.
The report says that a 65-year-old man who had a history of contact with camels and drinking raw camel milk got sick on May 20 and was hospitalized the same day. He tested positive for MERS-CoV on May 25 and died 5 days later.
The other Taif patient is a 74-year-old man who was hospitalized May 17 because of an unrelated medical condition, the WHO said. From May 21 to 23 he was cared for in the same ward and by the same healthcare workers as the 65-year-old. His MERS symptoms appeared May 27, and he tested positive the next day; he is now in stable condition.
With the nine Saudi cases, the WHO's global MERS count of confirmed cases has reached 1,164, including at least 440 deaths.
The Saudi MOH's national count, meanwhile, is 1,019 cases, including 450 deaths and 563 recoveries. Four cases are still active, and two patients are isolated at home.
See also:
Jun 4 WHO statement
Jun 4 MOH statement
