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| Credit Saudi MOH |
#13,819
The Saudi MOH has announced their 11th MERS case of 2019 - this time involving a 38 y.o. male from Wadi Aldwasir with reported camel contact. They have also announced the deaths of two community acquired cases from Epi Week 4.
When added to the 4 MERS cases announced overnight from Oman - already gives January 2019 50% more cases (n=15) than was reported in the first month of 2018 (n=9).
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| Credit WHO EMRO |
Given the strong likelihood that a significant number of cases go unreported (see EID Journal: Estimation of Severe MERS Cases in the Middle East, 2012–2016), any improvements in surveillance, testing, or reporting could easily account for this increase.
Nevertheless, less than a year ago - in the WHO List Of Blueprint Priority Diseases - we saw MERS-CoV listed among the 8 disease threat in need of urgent accelerated research and development.
List of Blueprint priority diseases
(SNIP)
The second annual review occurred 6-7 February, 2018. Experts consider that given their potential to cause a public health emergency and the absence of efficacious drugs and/or vaccines, there is an urgent need for accelerated research and development for*:
- Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF)
- Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease
- Lassa fever
- Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
- Nipah and henipaviral diseases
- Rift Valley fever (RVF)
- Zika
- Disease X
So any uptick in MERS cases, no matter how small, is worthy of our attention.
