# 7614
Yesterday the World Health Organization’s Global Alert & Response (GAR) page updated us on 8 recent Saudi MERS cases (see WHO: MERS-CoV Update - August 28th). today they confirm two cases from Qatar we learned about over the past week (see SCH Statement On Latest Qatari MERS-CoV Case).
Interestingly, one detail which we’d seen earlier this week in the SCH statement, isn’t mentioned in this WHO update . . . the assertion that the 29-year-old Qatari case had an exposure to an earlier case.
Here are excerpts from today’s announcement:
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) - update
Disease Outbreak News
29 August 2013 - WHO has been informed of an additional two laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in Qatar.
The patients include a 59-year old man with an underlying medical condition who became ill on 15 August 2013. He is currently hospitalised and is in stable condition.
Preliminary epidemiological investigations reveal that the patient travelled to Medina, Saudi Arabia for 6 days and returned to Qatar on 15 August 2013. He did not take part in Umrah and did not visit to Al-Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina. Further investigation is on-going.
The second patient is a 29-year-old man with an underlying medical condition who had no history of recent travel outside the country.
The results of both the cases were confirmed by an international reference laboratory. A total of 138 healthcare workers, family and community contacts have been screened in the country and so far all tested negative for MERS-CoV infection.
Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 104 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 49 deaths.
