Monday, April 07, 2014

Saudi MOH Announces 4 More MERS-CoV Cases

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# 8446

 

It’s been a confusing couple of days, trying to decipher the announcements coming out of Saudi Arabia on their latest MERS cases.  Yesterday, they announced 5 people tested positive (albeit 4 were asymptomatic), yet they only incremented their case count by 1 (see Saudi MOH Adds 1 New MERS-CoV Case & 2 Fatalities).

 

Roughly 10 hours ago, the KSA MOH site updated their case count, adding four new cases (TTL=171), but posted no comment.   It now appears that may have been a `correction’, adding yesterday’s asymptomatic cases to the count.


Within the past hour, KSA has updated their site again, indicating an additional four cases have been detected (TTL=175).  One (a Health care worker) is in intensive care, while 3 others (and at least one is a HCW) are reportedly asymptomatic.

 

Health: registration of 4 cases of HIV (SK) new in Jeddah

07/10/1435

Within the framework of epidemiological investigation and ongoing follow-up by the Ministry of health for virus "SK" with Middle East syndrome respiratory MERS CoV Ministry announces the registration of four cases of HIV in Jeddah.

First citizen works area, 28-year-old, being treated in intensive care, we pray to God for him.

And the second for a 35-year-old and has no symptoms.

And the third citizen working in health, a 32-year-old and has no symptoms.

And the fourth resident of the 33-year-old and has no symptoms.

 


Between a hamstrung press (Reporters Without Borders lists KSA as 164th in press freedom), parsimonious and often obtuse press releases from the Saudi Ministry of Health, and less-than-perfect translation software - it is often difficult to get a good feel of exactly what is going on with the MERS virus in Saudi Arabia.


What is apparent is that Jeddah has emerged as a hotspot for recent cases.  And based on some of the media reports of complaints by local healthcare workers (see below), concerns among hospital staff are running high. 

 

The funeral of a victim of the pathogen, "Corona" .. and his colleagues accuse the hospital of negligence

News 24 04/07/2014

 

Crowds buried in Jeddah, on Sunday, the body of the nurse at King Abdulaziz victim virus "Corona", Bandar Al Kathiri, to his final resting place, while the incident has raised a lot of death claims by the nurses at the hospital to provide safety precautions.

The sources said that the nurses at the hospital will file a letter to the Minister of Health to explain their suffering with the hospital's management for not providing the means of safety, despite being one of the most important hospitals in Jeddah.

They pointed to a default on the part of the hospital to provide adequate care for the treatment of their colleague Alkatiri, who suffered from the disease by the emergency department, noting that the hospital undervalues ​​the right instead of the infection, despite their work in an environment experiencing weakness of preventive programs.

They added that the state of Alkatiri were dangerous and need to be careful, and they demanded transferred to a specialized hospital for treatment, but that did not happen - according to them - were sufficient to bring the number of consultant physicians to the hospital, which suffers a shortage of possibilities, devices and drugs.