#13,448
Ten days ago, in Saudi MOH Reports 5th MERS-CoV Case In Buraidah For September, I reported on an uptick in that region which included both household and hospital secondary cases.
Today, the Saudi MOH has announced two new MERS cases. One community acquired case is from Buraidah, while the other is listed as from `Alasiah City' (aka Al-asyah) - which is about 20 miles outside of Buraidah.This second case is listed as deceased, and is still under investigation. Details are printed below:
MERS in Buraidah city: 65-year-old male in Buraidah city, Qaseem region
29/09/2018
New
Contact with camels: No
Case classification: Primary, community acquired
Current status: Hospitalized
----------------------------------------------
MERS in Alasiah city: 46-year-old male in Alasiah city, Qaseem region
29/09/2018
New
Contact with camels: No
Case classification: Under investigation
Current status: Deceased
The Qaseem region has about 1.3 million people, or roughly 4% of the total Saudi Arabian population. Since September 1st, this region has provided 8 of the 13 MERS cases reported by the MOH (6 from Buraidah, 2 from elsewhere in the region).
- The first Qaseem case (Sept 1st) reportedly had camel contact
- the 2nd & 3rd are simply listed as a `community acquired' cases
- case #4 is listed as secondary, hospital acquired
- case #5 is listed as secondary, household contact.
- Case #6 is still listed as under investigation.
- Case #7 is listed as Primary, community acquired
- and case #8 is under investigation.
There really isn't enough information here to make any determination of exactly what epidemiological links - if any - might exist between any of these cases, other than there were two secondary cases reported.Hopefully we'll get a more detailed report from the monthly WHO EMRO MERS Outbreak Summary, due in about 2 weeks. Until then, we'll continue to keep an eye on the region.
