Saudi MOH Announces 6 More MERS Cases (3 in Wadi Aldwasir)

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The MERS surge in Saudi Arabia continues today with 6 more cases reported - 3 of which are secondary (2 healthcare, 1 household) in Wadi Aldwasir, bringing  the number of cases reported there since January 29th to 15 and the number of cases reported in the first 5 days of Epi Week 6 to 17.

In addition to two other patients described as having recent camel contact - the MOH has reported 3 different clusters of cases in Wadi Aldwasir.

• 5 cases have been listed as secondary, household contacts
• 2 cases have been listed as secondary, community-acquired
• 6 cases have been listed as secondary, healthcare-acquired.

Today's update also includes:

• a secondary, household-acquired case (M, 35) in Buraidah - possibly linked to the case (65, M) reported on January 30th. 
• a 66 y.o. male in Riyadh City, reported as a primary, community acquired with no camel contact (11th case in Riyadh in 2019)
• a 78 y.o. male from Al Gurayat city with recent camel contact.

 

 
While the number of cases remains relatively low - we do seem to be seeing more clusters than usual being reported over the past 7 weeks.

• In week 52 of 2018, the Saudi MOH reported on an 80 y.o. female in Sajir City who was hospitalized with MERS and was apparently a secondary household contact of a 45 y.o. male (with camel contact) who was hospitalized in mid-December. 
• Over epi week 1 & 2, the Saudi MOH reported on a 3 person household cluster in Riyadh (see Saudi MOH: Third Case In Riyadh MERS Cluster). In this case, none of these patients reported recent camel contact.  
• In Epi Week 3, the Saudi MOH reported yet another Household Cluster of MERS - this time in Jeddah, again with neither reporting camel contact. 
  
• In Epi Week 5, the Saudi MOH reported on a 38 y.o. male from Wadi Aldwasir with camel contact which was followed two days later by the announcement of 2 Secondary, Community-Acquired MERS Cases in the same city. 
• 4 days ago the MOH announced a secondary, household cluster in Wadi Aldwasir which has now grown to 5 cases.
• A third cluster in Wadi Aldwasir - this time hospital acquired - has now expanded to 6 cases
• In the last week the Omani MOH announced 5 MERS cases, some of which are likely epidemiologically linked.
• And today we learn of a household cluster in Buraidah.

Hopefully details on some of these cases will be included in the next WHO EMRO MERS Summary, due out around the 10th of February, or we'll get a WHO DON Update.

Today's report brings KSA's total for the year to 33 cases, nearly as many cases as was reported during the last 4 months of 2018 (n=34).