Credit Dr. Ian Mackay
# 8500
With the MERS coronavirus numbers changing literally by the hour (yesterday we saw 19 new cases announced, and media hints of several others), keeping track has become a full time job. Since I can’t even keep track of where I left my reading glasses, I’m thankful that this onerous task has been taken up by two of Flublogia’s more organized individuals.
Sharon Sanders on Flutrackers began keeping a detailed (and linked to reports) MERS Case List roughly 18 months ago, long before anyone knew this virus would become a serious threat.
Meanwhile Dr. Ian Mackay provides us with charts, graphs, and expert commentary on his VDU blog, that adds much needed clarity to the numbers.
They aren’t alone, by the way. You’ll find other blogs, newshounds, and journalists making important contributions as well. Flublogia is a large and industrious community.
Overnight (my time) Ian has prepared a new blog and updated three charts showing the impact of the latest MERS cases announced out of the UAE and Saudi Arabia yesterday.
Sunday, 20 April 2014
The 2 healthcare-associated clusters (paramedic cluster and Jeddah cluster) are the driving factors underpinning the case number spike in April. Cases in other regions are either linked or relatively few in number.
With a dozen new cases noted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) early this morning (my time) I've updated the case and epidemic curve chart below as well, again. This makes UAE the clear second place hotzone for MERS-CoV cases.
Whether these cases, all asymptomatic, are liked to the paramedic cluster or just the result of enhanced testing (there was mention of contacts in the media release though) is unknown and awaits clarification as do more details on most of the recent 90 cases .
As always with Ian’s blog: go for the graphics, but stay for the commentary.
