Saturday, September 05, 2015

Jordan: 3rd MERS Fatality Of 2015

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# 10,493

 

 

The last we heard, the current Jordanian MERS cluster stood at 6 cases, and 2 deaths (see WHO Update On Jordanian MERS Cluster).  Today, the Jordanian News Agency PETRA, and other media outlets, are reporting a third fatality and state the count now stands at seven.


The Jordanian Ministry of Health website provides no details on any of these cases, and so we are forced to rely primarily on fairly thin media reporting.

 

This third fatality is listed as 77 years of age, and suffering from lung cancer.   It is likely this is the third case we first learned about a week ago who was described as `78 years old and suffering from cancer’.   Both the WHO and ECDC updates listed him as being 76 years of age, with `chronic health problems.   

 

Neither account exactly matches today’s report, but are `close’.    

 

Alternatively, it is possible this 3rd fatality is the 7th case of this cluster.   Given the parsimonious nature of the press releases, matching up details on these cases is an `iffy’ proposition.

 

Hopefully the next update from the WHO will fill in some of  the missing details.

 

Jordan recorded a third death Balchorona

Amman, September 5 (Petra) - The Ministry of Health reported Saturday's third death virus Koruna to Jordanian citizen at the age of 77 years he was suffering diagnosed with the disease previously. He Communicable Diseases director Dr Mohamed Abdullat that the deceased was admitted to a private hospital in the capital, and had been suffering from lung cancer.

He added that the ministry has registered 7 HIV infections since the first case of this year died, including 3 cases. - (Petra) OM / Abuallbh 05/09/2015 - 22:19

 

The Jordanian count of cases differs from that kept by other agencies, as they are not counting 7 cases retrospectively identified through serological testing from the first hospital outbreak in April of 2012 (see Serological Testing Of 2012 Jordanian MERS Outbreak).

 

Hence, the ECDC and others show Jordan (as of the 2nd of September) as having 25 cases, and 8 deaths . . . while the Jordanians claimed only 18 cases.