Saudi Arabia
#15,630
Saudi Arabia - which up until the end of May, had reported 56 MERS cases since the first of the year - went silent over the summer in reporting cases.
Perhaps even more telling, WHO EMRO - which had managed to post monthly reports of MERS in the Middle East even during past `information blackouts' by the Saudi MOH, hasn't posted an update since January 2020.Daily MOH updates ceased, and The World Health Organization's last update was published in early July (see WHO DON: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Saudi Arabia), and only covered cases through the end of May.
Whether this lull in reporting was due to surveillance and reporting limitations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic - or had other causes - is unknown. But prior to the emergence of COVID-19, MERS-CoV was considered the coronavirus with the greatest potential to spark a pandemic.
In early November the silence was finally broken (see Saudi MOH Reports 1st MERS Case In More Than 5 Months), with the announcement of a single case (with camel contact) in Riyadh. Since then, a second case was reported on the 1st of December (again, with camel contact from Riyadh).
And two more were reported on December 10th.
All three cases appear to have been `back-filled' - meaning they appear to have been posted several days after their reporting date - and did not show up on the Saudi MOH current week summary.
Even in the best of times, Saudi Surveillance and reporting was estimated to be picking up only a fraction of the actual MERS cases in the Kingdom (see EID Journal: Estimation of Severe MERS Cases in the Middle East, 2012–2016).
While it is possible that the incidence of MERS - like influenza - has dropped precipitously since the arrival of COVID-19, it is also possible that limited, and over taxed resources have led to a reduction in case reports.
Either way, as long as MERS circulates in camels - and occasionally jumps to humans - it remains a credible public health threat.
