#14,513
Over the past two weeks the Saudi MOH has announced 9 new MERS Cases from around the country, with multiple cases reported from Khamis Mushait, Wadi Aldwasir, and Riyadh.
With the exception of one secondary case reported in Wadi Aldwasir, all of these cases are listed as `primary', and are assumed to be unrelated.All this comes on the heels of a noticeable uptick in cases in October (n=13).
Today Epi Week #46 starts off with a new case in the Kingdom's capital, Riyadh, involving a 33 y.o. male with unknown camel contact.
This is the 3rd case to be reported from the Capital Riyadh during the first 10 days of November (see here, and here).
Some cities - like Riyadh, Wadi Aldwasir, Hofuf, Buraidah, and Khamis Mushait - tend to appear more often in these disease reports, but whether that indicates a higher prevalence of MERS infections, or simply better local screening and testing is unknown.A little over a year ago, in Evaluation of a Visual Triage for the Screening of MERS-CoV Patients, we looked at the scoring system developed by the Saudi MOH that - based on visible symptoms, and exposure history - elects who to isolate and test as a potential MERS case.
The $64 question was: Does it work?The answer, as provided by prolific MERS researcher and former KSA Deputy Minister of Health, Ziad Memish, MD et al., in an analysis published in NMNI, is not particularly well.
All of which means that that surveillance - in all likelihood - misses a lot of cases, and areas that aren't aggressively testing are less likely to find, and report, cases.
