#14,494
The recent uptick in MERS cases continues with 2 more cases announced today by the Saudi MOH - bringing October's total to 13 cases - which exceeds the combined total for August and September.
Today's 1st case hails from Wadi Aldwasir, which you'll recall was the site of a large community & Healthcare acquired outbreak (60+ cases & 8 deaths) last spring (see WHO Update & Saudi Epidemiological Investigation Of The Wadi Aldwasir MERS Cluster).Since that outbreak ended we've seen a smattering of MERS cases from that area - including two others this month (Epi Week 40 and Epi Week 42), all of which have been reported as `primary' cases with no stated epidemiological links.
These barebones daily updates from the Saudi MOH are always subject to revision, but for now none of these cases is reported as `secondary', which would indicate a cluster.
Today's second case adds to yet another recent hot spot - Khamis Mushait - which I highlighted in yesterday's blog. Today's case - a 55 y.o. male listed as `primary' - is either the 4th or 5th case (see below) from the area this month.
- The first involved a 26 y.o. female listed as a `secondary case') on Oct. 10th, possibly linked to another case (M, 34) who was reported from a nearby community (Abha City, about 17 miles from Khamis Meshalt) on Oct 2nd.
- The 2nd was a 73 y.o. male listed as `primary, with unknown camel contact' on Oct. 19th.
- The third case - reported yesterday - is a 94 y.o. male, reportedly with recent camel contact.
So far - despite some regional clustering of primary cases - we've not seen MERS transmit in the community the way that SARS did 16 years ago.MERS does, however, transmit from person-to-person quite readily in close quarters - such as in hospitals and households - and we've seen studies (see A Pandemic Risk Assessment Of MERS-CoV In Saudi Arabia) suggesting the virus doesn't have all that far to evolve before it could pose a genuine global threat.
So we watch these reports closely, for any signs that the status quo has changed.
