# 8627
My thanks to Crof for tweeting the news, and posting a media report, on the second MERS detection in the Netherlands in two days. This second case is reportedly a relative and traveling companion of the case reported yesterday.
The Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (aka Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu or RIVM ) has very recently posted the following (machine translated) statement on their website:
Second MERS -patient in the Netherlands
- Publication Date:15-05-2014
- Today, May 15, 2014, is a second Dutch patients infected with the MERS coronavirus identified. The woman is a relative of the man who is diagnosed with yesterday. She also has become contaminated during the same trip to Saudi Arabia. She is listed in Isala Zwolle and nursed in strict isolation. Her health condition is stable. All the people who have had contact with the patient are mapped by the health department. These people's health condition is monitored.
The woman holds in Saudi Arabia visited a dromedarissenboerderij. She has had close contact with the first patient, they shared a hotel room for two weeks. It is also known that both patients have underlying conditions that make them probably more susceptible to infection with this virus.
The Public Health Service , the health status of all travelers and people who have had contact with the patients good eye. If they get health research is done. It is therefore possible that an infection with more patients in the coming weeks MERS coronavirus is established. Dutch hospitals are well equipped to provide this care. MERS infections can cause severe respiratory symptoms, especially in people with other health problems. Diarrhea symptoms may also occur. Human-to-human transmission of the MERS coronavirus is rare, except in close contact with patients and unprotected care of seriously ill people.Since 2012 there has been an outbreak of a new MERS coronavirus (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) in the Middle East. Meanwhile, more than 500 patients in the Middle East have been reported to the World Health Organization. In April and May 2014, there is a sharp increase in the number of reports in the Middle East. The vast majority of reports come from this region (especially Saudi Arabia, as well as Qatar, Jordan, Oman, Yemen and United Arab Emirates). Since last year, there are some patients in whom infection with MERS coronavirus has been established in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Greece, Philippines, Malaysia, Kuwait, Tunisia, Egypt, Germany and the United States. These were travelers who have been in the Middle East. Infected It is not unexpected that there are now patients in the Netherlands. MERS coronavirus Therefore since July 2013 a notifiable infectious disease.
