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Despite assurances by local officials and headlines in the Arabic press calling the MERS scare ‘overblown’, we really don’t know just how this emerging coronavirus story will play out. It may remain primarily a localized problem, or if we are really lucky, recede back to whence it came.
But there are no guarantees of either of those outcomes.
As a major hub of international travel, one that receives millions of religious pilgrims every year, the Arabian peninsula is perhaps better suited than most places to disseminate an emerging disease – even one that (for now) doesn’t appear to be easily transmissible.
Currently, there are media reports of suspected cases being tested in India, Pakistan, Egypt, and Indonesia – plus many other places I’m sure. Two places keeping excellent track of these reports are FluTrackers and Crofsblog.
So far, we are told that most of these suspected cases have tested negative – but given the surge in cases in Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the past month - the odds increasingly favor seeing more exported cases of MERS turn up around the world.
Today the Jakarta Post is reporting that two Indonesians on Umrah in Saudi Arabia have contracted the virus, and one has died. The survivor is isolated in King Fahd hospital in Jeddah. The fact that they fell ill before returning home was more a matter of luck than of design.
Second Indonesian found with MERS in Saudi Arabia
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Sat, May 10 2014, 3:00 PM
An Indonesian citizen in Saudi Arabia has been diagnosed with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus.
According to a press release from the Indonesia Consulate General in Jeddah, Jumallang Kaneng Lejja, 84, had arrived in Saudi Arabia to go on umrah (minor haj pilgrimage) on April 15, and was scheduled to return to Indonesia on April 25, as reported by tribunnews.com.
Jumallang, from Makassar, South Sulawesi, was admitted into the King Fahd Specialist Hospital on April 28 complaining of chest pains.
On April 29, the Health Ministry reported that another Indonesian — NA, 61 — had died of MERS after being treated for seven days at King Saud Hospital in Jeddah, Saud Arabia.
While it appears that nosocomial transmission of this virus currently plays a bigger part in its spread than does community transmission – and that good infection control procedures can contain it – thus far, hospitals in the Middle East haven’t demonstrated a lot of success in doing so.
Should this virus be exported to a region of the world where infection control and public health capabilities are less capable – say in parts of Asia or Africa - this virus could find an even more hospitable environment in which to flourish.
Which is why the international public health community must remain vigilant for any sign that this virus has gained a foothold outside of the Middle East.
