Coronavirus – Credit CDC PHIL
# 7965
In a follow up to a story which we’ve been following since yesterday (see KSA MERS Investigation: Testing The Beast, Not The Beauty & MERS-CoV: CIDRAP & Dr. Mackay On The Saudi Camel Connection), ProMed Mail has published this afternoon an email from Dr. Ziad Memish , Deputy Minister for Public Health for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that provides some additional details.
I’ve only included some excerpts, you’ll want to follow the link to read the entire release, including commentary by the editors at ProMed.
Published Date: 2013-11-12 13:01:10
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> MERS-CoV - Eastern Mediterranean (85): animal reservoir, camel, susp, official
Archive Number: 20131112.2051424MERS-COV - EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN (85): ANIMAL RESERVOIR, CAMEL, SUSPECTED, OFFICIAL
A ProMED-mail post http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases http://www.isid.orgDate: Tue 12 Nov 2013
From: Ziad Memish <zmemish@yahoo.com> [edited]
The Saudi Ministry of Health [MoH] continues to follow carefully all new cases of MERS-CoV diagnosed in KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] with routine contact tracing of all contacts inclusive of family contacts and HCWs [healthcare workers] who cared for the patient. On 7 Nov 2013 the Saudi MoH reported a new case: a 43-year-old male from Jeddah, who developed symptoms on 27 Oct 2013. He sought medical treatment on 3 Nov 2013. He is currently in an intensive care unit. The patient does not have any underlying chronic disease. He has no recent travel history outside of Jeddah. He had significant contact with animals but no contact with a known positive human case. To complete the investigation extensive environmental/animal contact sources were pursued. Camels owned by the patient which were symptomatic with fever and rhinorrhea were tested for MERS-CoV and tested positiveThis is the 1st time that a camel related to a case tests positive for MERS-CoV by PCR. Further testing is ongoing to sequence the patient and the camel virus and compare genetic similarity level to conclude causality.
