MERS Cases and Death Toll Continue to Rise

Saudi Arabia health officials and the World Health Organization reported on Thursday, May 30, 2013, that three more people there have died today after contracting the MERS coronavirus. Since March at least 50 people in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Jordan, Qatar, France, Germany and the United Kingdom have been infected by MERS and 30 have died. Image © 2013 by CBS.

— “The MERS coronavirus is a threat to the entire world.”

- Margaret Chan, M. D., Dir.-Gen., W.H.O., May 28, 2013

— “This is the first time health care workers have been
diagnosed with MERS infection after exposure to patients.”

- World Health Organization, May 15, 2013

— “Of most concern is the fact that the different clusters
of MERS seen in multiple countries increasingly supports the hypothesis
that when there is close human contact, this MERS coronavirus
can transmit from person to person.”

- Keiji Fukuda, Asst. Dir.-General, W.H.O.

Photomicrograph of new MERS-CoV coronavirus (yellow) that first emerged from the Middle East, but with modern air travel has spread to Europe. A second patient in Paris, France, was hospitalized this week infected by MERS-CoV. Image credit: NIAID/RML. See: W. H. O.

May 31, 2013 Chicago, Illinois - Last week the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) reported that a nurse and two health care workers in Saudi Arabia were infected after treating patients with MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a name suggested in the May 15, 2013, Journal of Virology by a Coronavirus Study Group. A WHO spokesperson told reporters on May 15th, “This is the first time health care workers have been diagnosed with MERS infection after exposure to patients.”

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