Daily MERS-CoV detections from 20-March. Credit Ian Mackay VDU Blog
# 8643
Dr. Ian Mackay – after taking a few days off from the blogging routine – has returned with a flourish, producing two feature (and graphic!) rich posts on the MERS outbreak in Saudi Arabia. Both deserve to be read in their entirety, so skip the excerpts and go ahead and read them on Ian’s blog.
First, a look at how camels may be spreading the virus, in:
Camels at the centre, aerosol all around...
An airborne-centric view of how the camel could be a source of sporadic human infection by MERS-CoV, a virus that is genetically very similar whether found in camels or humans.
The inner ring (orange) is more about droplets and aerosols-if you must differentiate on size.
These are potential routes by which a human in contact with, or near to, camels might acquire virus from them, when those camels are actively infected.It's worth noting that camels are not all infected all the time. This is why there hasn't been a rash of camel herdsmen coming down with MERS after the YouTube camel-kissing outbreak...at least as far as we know there hasn’t.
And in a second post, Ian discusses the usefulness of serology tests in pinpointing cases, and the drop in reported MERS cases during the month of May.
MERS-CoV detections: The April wave recedes...
So welcome to the 114th Week of MERS-CoV among us. That week numbering may change shortly. Stay tuned if week numbering is your thing.
We currently have a tally of 649 detections of MERS-CoV or viral antibodies in humans. I don't list camel numbers. My count says 192 fatalities among infected people, resulting in a proportion of fatal cases of 29.6%. That seems high. Because, until very recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health did not regularly report deaths alongside their date of illness onset, it has been an interesting hobby to try and link them. The number is solid so along as the MOH has not been doubling up in the reporting or coming back later to re-report deaths. You'll be familiar with these issues if you follow me on Twitter.
