Credit @WHO
# 7495
An update from the World Health Organization that includes the two cases mentioned here yesterday (see KSA Announces Two New MERS-CoV Cases) and four new cases in the United Arab Emirates.
Of particular note, 5 of the 6 cases are health care workers, and of the 6, two are asymptomatic, while the other four only have mild symptoms.
With several different serological tests in the process of being validated, doctors are increasingly better able to detect mild and/or asymptomatic infections. While no doubt a relief to many that this virus doesn’t always produce severe illness, mild cases also suggest the virus may be capable of spreading undetected.
Hence the call by the WHO for `all Member States to continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns’
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update
18 July 2013 - WHO has been informed of six additional laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Of these, two cases have been reported from Saudi Arabia and four from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Both the cases in Saudi Arabia have mild symptoms and are not hospitalized. They are from Asir region. The first case is a 26-year-old man who is a close contact with a previously laboratory-confirmed case and the second case is a 42-year-old woman who is a health care worker.
In the UAE, the four cases are health care workers from two hospitals in Abu Dhabi who took care of an earlier laboratory-confirmed patient. Of these, two cases, a 28-year-old man and 30-year-old woman, did not develop symptoms of illness. The other two cases, both women of 30 and 40 years old, had mild upper respiratory symptoms and are in stable condition.
Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 88 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 45 deaths.
