#12,726
Although I haven't seen any formal announcement from the UAE Health Authority, today the WHO is reporting of a single MERS case with illness onset in mid-July. The patient, a 54 y.o. male with no comorbidities, and no obvious exposure risks, remains on a ventilator more than a month after falling ill.
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – United Arab Emirates
Disease outbreak news
28 August 2017
On 29 July 2017, the national IHR focal point of the United Arab Emirates reported one additional case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV)
Details of the case
Detailed information concerning the case reported can be found in a separate document (see link below).
MERS-CoV cases reported on 29 July 2017
xlsx, 46kb
The patient, who lives and works in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, presented at a hospital in Al Ain on 16 July 2017. On 16 July, a chest X-ray showed pneumonia and he was treated with antibiotics and non-invasive ventilation. On 25 July, his symptoms worsened and a sputum sample was collected and tested for MERS-CoV and influenza. On 26 July, showing no signs of improvement, the patient was transferred to a second hospital in Al Ain and placed in an intensive care unit.
A second sputum sample was collected on 26 July and both samples tested positive for MERS-CoV on 27 July 2017. The patient is currently in ICU on mechanical ventilation. Investigations into the source of infection are ongoing. At the time of writing the results of the investigation were not yet provided to WHO.
Globally, 2067 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV including at least 720 related deaths have been reported to WHO.
Public health response(Continue . . . )
The Ministry of Health in Abu Dhabi carried out contact tracing and followed up 89 health care workers and 95 contacts at his place of employment. All identified contacts were monitored for 14 days from the last date of exposure. No additional cases were detected.
