#14,470
The minor uptick in MERS case reports out of Saudi Arabia we've seen over teh past month continues this morning with the third case announced by their MOH for Epi Week #42 (and 4th case in the past 7 days), this time involving a 57 y.o. male from Oyon Aljoa City.
Cases continue to be widely scattered, with no signs of aggressive or efficient spread in the community, and we've seen no large healthcare associated outbreaks since last spring.
Exactly how many of these `community acquired' cases come to be exposed isn't known - as many deny having recent camel contact - although low-level transmission by mildly symptomatic (or even asymptomatic) carriers of the virus is considered a possibility.While MERS-CoV still hasn't taken off the way that SARS did 16 years ago, 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 keep a very close watch on cases, looking for any signs the virus is getting its act together.
