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| Original Map Credit Wikipedia |
#13,912
Until yesterday's report of a new Primary-camel contact MERS patient in Wadi Aldwasir, we hadn't seen a new case in that hard hit community in 9 days.
Since late January, Wadi Aldwasir has reported 52 MERS cases - including 38 secondary cases - acquired from contact with an infected human (household contact, healthcare acquired, etc.).
Somewhat reassuringly, the last two cases reported (Feb 25th, Mar 5th) there were primary cases, both with reported camel contact. Today, however we have the first secondary case reported since Feb 23rd, 11 days ago.This is (barely) within the accepted 14-day incubation period of the MERS virus - and so this is conceivably the result of an exposure as much as two weeks ago. But the average incubation period is closer to 4 days, suggesting a more recent infection.
While the Saudi MOH has always used a minimalistic approach when it comes to releasing data on MERS cases and outbreaks, their newly adopted reporting format (which began last Sunday) provides us with even less information than before.
We are only informed this is a secondary case (45, F without camel contact).Right now we can't tell whether this is healthcare related, a household contact, or even if the patient is hospitalized or in home isolation (usually a sign of a mild or symptomatic illness).
Although we haven't seen any indication of sustained or efficient transmission of the MERS virus in the Middle East, the first two months of 2019 has seen a significant surge of cases in both Saudi Arabia (n=92) and Oman (n=13).
The last WHO update on this cluster was on February 26th (see WHO Update: MERS Outbreak In Wadi Aldwasir), which covered cases reported between January 29th and February 13th.
We should get a brief MERS summary from WHO EMRO within the next week, and perhaps a more detailed WHO DON report in the coming days as well.Hopefully the Saudis will reconsider these recent report changes and return to the old format.
