@WHO Twitter announcement June 15th, 2013
# 7401
Yesterday, only an hour or so after the World Health Organization released their latest coronavirus update, Saudi Arabia Announced 3 More MERS-CoV Cases.
Of particular concern, 2 of these cases were located in the western region (near Mecca) and 1 was in central region (near Riyadh).
Thus far, no epidemiological links to the Al Asha outbreaks have been announced.
This morning WHO has published the following update on their Global Alert & Response page:
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update 15 June 2013
15/06/2013
The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has announced an additional three laboratory-confirmed cases, including one death with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
The first patient is a 45-year-old man with underlying medical conditions from Taif governorate. He became ill since the end of May 2013 and is in critical condition. The second patient is a 68-year-old woman with underlying medical conditions from Taif governorate. She became ill on 6 June 2013 and is in critical condition. The third was a fatal patient of 46 years old from Wadi Al-Dawaser. He became ill on 29 May 2013, was admitted to a hospital on 8 June 2013 and has died.
Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 61 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 34 deaths.
WHO has received reports of laboratory-confirmed cases originating in the following countries in the Middle East to date: Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and the United Kingdom also reported laboratory-confirmed cases; they were either transferred there for care of the disease or returned from the Middle East and subsequently became ill. In France, Italy, Tunisia and the United Kingdom, there has been limited local transmission among patients who had not been to the Middle East but had been in close contact with the laboratory-confirmed or probable cases.
Unfortunately, we continue to see only the barest of details provided in these updates from the KSA Ministry of Health.
