#12,582
The Saudi daily MERS reports continue to be a bit fragmented and confused (see listing above), with days skipped, and link descriptions not always matching the entries, but today we've an update from the World Health Organization that provides an update on the three hospital clusters we've been watching since June 1st.
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Saudi Arabia
Disease outbreak news
28 June 2017
Between 16 and 23 June 2017, the national IHR Focal Point of Saudi Arabia reported seven additional cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection, including two deaths, and four deaths among previously reported cases.
Details of the cases(Continue . . . )
Detailed information concerning the cases reported can be found in a separate document (see link below).
MERS-CoV cases reported between 16 and 23 June 2017.
xlsx, 40kb
Three of the seven newly reported cases are associated with clusters 1 and 3 as reported in the Disease Outbreak News published on 13 June 2017 and 19 June 2017.
Cluster 1
An additional two cases have been reported in this cluster in Riyadh City, Riyadh Region. In total, 34 laboratory-confirmed cases reported to WHO are associated with this cluster.
Cluster 2
No newly reported cases are associated with cluster 2 as reported in the Disease Outbreak News published on 13 June 2017.
Cluster 3
An additional case has been reported in this cluster in Riyadh City, Riyadh Region. Thus far, this cluster involves nine laboratory-confirmed patients.
Globally, 2036 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV including at least 710 related deaths have been reported to WHO.
Public health response
The Ministry of Health is evaluating each case and their contacts and is still implementing the measures to limit further human-to-human transmission and bring these outbreaks to a control as described in the DON published on 19 June 2017.
WHO risk assessment
MERS-CoV causes severe human infections resulting in high mortality and has demonstrated the ability to transmit between humans. So far, the observed non-sustained human-to-human transmission has occurred mainly in health care settings.
The notification of additional cases does not change the overall risk assessment. WHO expects that additional cases of MERS-CoV infection will be reported from the Middle East, and that cases will continue to be exported to other countries by individuals who might acquire the infection after exposure to animals or animal products (for example, following contact with dromedaries) or human source (for example, in a health care setting).
WHO continues to monitor the epidemiological situation and conducts risk assessment based on the latest available information.
While we continue to get a fair amount of detail on these individual cases (see xlxs list), what will be of even greater interest will be an analysis of the chains of infections in these three clusters, and how this nosocomial outbreak got so far out of control.
