# 8503
On Friday night we learned of the first imported case of MERS to Greece (see Greece: MOH On 1st Imported Case Of MERS-CoV). Today the World Health Organization has released a DON (Disease Outbreak News) update.
While we knew this patient had traveled from Jeddah – the scene of Saudi Arabia’s largest hospital-related MERS outbreak – today we learn this patient had repeated visits to a local hospital (visiting his wife) before falling ill.
The link below is a temporary one, and this DON will be moved to a permanent link later today or tomorrow.
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – update
The following details were provided to WHO by the Ministry of Health, Greece, on 18 April 2014:
The patient is a 69-year old male Greek citizen residing in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who travelled back to Greece on 17 April. While in Jeddah, the patient consulted a hospital on 8 and 10 April for a febrile illness with diarrhoea, and was given a probable diagnosis of typhoid fever. Of note, he regularly visited his wife who was hospitalised from 31 March to 5 April in the same hospital for a confirmed typhoid fever.
The patient sought medical care upon arrival in Greece on 17 April. The evaluation revealed a bilateral pneumonia and the diagnosis of MERS-CoV infection was made at the National Reference Laboratory for Influenza. The patient is in stable condition and is receiving appropriate treatment.
This is the first case of MERS-CoV infection in the country.
Individuals who had close contacts with the case in the plane, the hospital in Greece and in the community have been identified and are being followed up. So far, none of the contacts became ill. Hellenic health authorities issued a press release to inform the population and informed all Greek hospitals on measures that need be taken to identify suspect patients and implement appropriate preventive measures.
Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been informed of a total of 250 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including 93 deaths.
