#12,170
Two days ago we saw 1 primary MERS case reported from Jeddah, involving a 48 y.o. Expat male who was listed in critical condition. Today the MOH has announced a second case from Jeddah, this time a 30 y.o. male health care worker who acquired the virus at work.
Between 2013 and the end of 2015, Saudi Arabia saw multiple, large nosocomial outbreaks of MERS, sometimes involving more than 100 HCWs and patients. One of the largest took place in Jeddah in the spring of 2014 (see EID Journal: Large Hospital Outbreak Of MERS-CoV - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2014).
Starting last year, we saw a marked reduction in the number of hospital acquired infections, and only a handful of (relatively) small nosocomial outbreaks, presumably due to improvements in infection control.
As hospitals have been a hotbed of transmission in the past, we'll obviously be keeping our eyes on Jeddah to see how quickly this cluster can be halted.
