MERS – CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) Update
As of September 19, 2019, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean reported only one (1) new case so far in September; August had a total of six (6) patients, with one death among the six. These cases were all from Saudi Arabia. The September patient had no known contact with camels but was also not thought to be a secondary, or human-to-human transmission. Two of the cases in August were a human-to-human cluster in a household. No health care workers reportedly contracted the disease in August or September. In fact, health care worker infections have decreased.
The first laboratory confirmed case was reported in April of 2012. Since then, there have been a total of 2,465 lab confirmed cases with 850 deaths reported throughout the world, for an overall case fatality rate of 34.4%. The majority of the cases are from Saudi Arabia with a total case count of 2,074 cases (84.1% of all the cases) with 772 deaths, for a case fatality rate just for Saudi Arabia of 37.2%. Saudi Arabia’s case and death counts are also part of the global total. The number of cases in 2018 and so far in 2019 are significantly less than those from 2014 to 2017, but the epidemiological markers and demographics are similar throughout. Although most cases are found on/from the Arabian Peninsula; a total of 27 countries throughout the world have reported cases, including two (2) in the US in 2014. Since the first case was identified in 2012, 19.1% of the cases have been health care workers. Statistically, there are more secondary contacts than primary ones, but there is also a significant amount of unknown and missing contact information that skew the data.
These are the 27 countries that have had cases of MERS-CoV. The Arabian Peninsula countries are bolded and have accrued the most cases: Algeria, Austria, Bahrain, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the U.K., the U.S.A., and Yemen.
WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Monthly MERS Report (August 2019):
https://www.emro.who.int/health-topics/mers-cov/mers-outbreaks.html
CDC MERS-CoV Home Page with Links to Comprehensive Info about the Disease:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/
WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Home Page with Info, Updates, Links & Resources:
https://www.emro.who.int/health-topics/mers-cov/index.html
WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Fact Sheets & FAQ, Resources & Articles:
https://www.emro.who.int/health-topics/mers-cov/information-resources.html
