MERS Coronavirus, 28th Death Announced In Saudi Arabia

Date: Jun-15-2013The Saudi Ministry of health has announced another two deaths from MERS-CoV infection, the new SARS-like coronavirus, plus two new human infections. So far, 46 people have become ill with MERS-CoV infection and 28 have died in Saudi Arabia.

The two patients who died were foreigners working in Saudi Arabia, Ministry sources informed. We have no details of their nationalities. One, a 46-year-old male, died on Wednesday June 12th in Wadi al-Dawasir, a town south of Riyadh, the capital. The other was also a male, aged 21, who died on Friday June 14th in Hafr al-Batin, in the northeast of the country.

According to WHO (World Health Organization), since September 2012, worldwide there have been 58 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV human infection, including 33 deaths.
Concern regarding expected pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia

Between one and two million people will gather at Mecca in July/August
WHO and the Saudi Health Ministry are becoming concerned at what the months of July/August might bring. Ramadan, a Muslim month of fasting during daylight hours, starts on July 9th this year.

Towards the end of Ramadan, approximately two million pilgrims are expected from all over the world to visit the holy sites of Saudi Arabia.

Every Muslim's aim is to visit the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, at least once during their lifetime. This pilgrimage is called Umrah and can be done at any time of year. A significant proportion of Umrah pilgrims come during the last ten days of Ramadan.

With the MERS-CoV circulating in the country, and with a death rate of approximately 60%, experts wonder what will happen when two million people crowd together?. How many will become ill? How many could die? Could this be the start of a serious worldwide spread of this new SARS-like coronavirus when pilgrims fly back home?

At the best of times, dealing with infectious diseases when there are massive gatherings is a public health challenge. We do not know much about MERS-CoV. Nobody is sure how human transmissible it is. We do not even know its source. Without much knowledge, it is difficult to know what to advise pilgrims.

Professor Salman Rawaf, from Imperial College London, in an interview with the Financial Times said that the risk to pilgrims is a real one. "The advice from the World Health Organization is wear a mask," he said.
MERS-CoV is not spreading widely in Saudi Arabia
A group of experts from WHO and Saudi Arabia, after a six-day field study, concluded that MERS-CoV is not spreading widely in Saudi Arabia.

They identified three main epidemiological patterns to MERS-CoV:
Intermittent random infections - sporadic cases started off in communities. The source of MERS-CoV is still unknown. Nobody knows how humans become infected.

Family clusters appeared, showing that the virus is human-transmissible.

MERS-CoV infections started spreading inside hospitals - hospital acquired infections. Hospital clusters have been reported in France, Jordan and Saudi Arabia
However, there is no evidence of widespread human-to-human transmission of MERS-CoV. Even in hospitals, the virus does not spread easily, as was the case with the SARS-coronavirus ten years ago.

Written by Christian Nordqvist

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