The three linked cases involved three men from Hofuf, ages 76, 62, and 59, all of them in stable condition. The 76-year-old, who got sick on Jan 19, owns a camel farm, has frequent contact with camels, and drinks raw camel milk, the WHO said. He has no history of exposure to other risk factors.
The 59-year-old and the 62-year-old fell ill on Jan 28 and 29, respectively. Like the older man, they both have other illnesses, and neither was exposed to other risk factors in the 2 weeks before getting sick.
Of the other seven patients noted in the WHO statement, only one is a healthcare worker, and three are foreigners. One patient, an 80-year-old man who lived in Riyadh, died on Feb 1. Another patient, a 62-year-old man from Riyadh, has no symptoms and was identified by tracing and testing contacts of an earlier case-patient.
Aside from the asymptomatic patient and the man who died, all the patients were in stable condition, the WHO reported.
In a third statement yesterday, the WHO added a few details on the MERS case in a 55-year-old man in Qatar, which was announced Feb 1 by the nation’s Supreme Council of Health. The WHO said he is a foreigner living in the city of Al-Shahaniya who fell ill on Jan 28 and was hospitalized Feb 1.
The man, who is in stable condition, often had contact with camels and goats but has no other known risk factors for MERs and no comorbidities, the WHO said.
The WHO’s current MERS count is 977 confirmed cases, with at least 359 deaths.
via Saudi Arabia reports 12 MERS cases; UAE adds 1 | CIDRAP.







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