Saturday, June 21, 2014

Mackay On The Recent Decline In MERS Cases

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Credit Dr. Ian Mackay VDU Blog

 

# 8767

 

 

MERS continues to move in mysterious ways, with a summer drop-off in cases this year almost identical to what we saw in 2013.  With Ramadan – and the accompanying increase in religious pilgrims in Saudi Arabia – less than a week away, this reduction in cases is welcome news. 


But sporadic new cases continue to be identified in the community, and the mode of transmission has yet to be clearly defined. 

 

Between the upcoming month of Ramadan, and the Hajj in October, the opportunities for this virus to spread still remain. Dr. Ian Mackay looks at these trends, and discusses the unknowns, this morning his his VDU Blog.

 

 

Adding in the recent MERS-CoV cases by chart...we're back to 2013

 


According to my personal list...


Total cases globally: 714
Total deaths globally: 225
Proportion of fatal cases (PFC): 31.5%

My data still do not include the found113 cases, reported by the Command & Control Centre of the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA; gasp) 3-June because they can't be included. They have no accompanying data apart from some of them not being confirmed/sent for confirmation, by a second laboratory. And we see how that rolls in the recent Bangladesh case hmm?

(Continue . . .)