Saudi Arabia reports 3 cases, including 1 death, from deadly MERS coronavirus

New Delhi:

The Saudi Ministry of Health informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of three human cases, including one death, of the deadly and highly contagious Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus between April 10 and 17 .

The three cases were men from Riyadh aged 56 to 60 with underlying health conditions and were not health workers, the WHO said in its bulletin.

All three cases are epidemiologically linked to exposures at a health facility in Riyadh, although investigations are underway to verify this and understand the route of transmission, the WHO said. Since the start of the year, a total of four cases and two deaths have been reported in Saudi Arabia. The reporting of these cases does not change WHO’s overall risk assessment, which remains moderate at both global and regional levels.

MERS is a viral respiratory infection caused by the MERS coronavirus (CoV). About 36 percent of MERS patients have died, although this may be an overestimate of the true mortality rate because mild cases of MERS-CoV can go unnoticed in existing surveillance systems and the case fatality rate is calculated only based on laboratory data. confirmed cases, the WHO said.

Humans are infected with MERS-CoV through direct or indirect contact with camels, which are the natural host and zoonotic source of the virus. MERS-CoV has demonstrated the ability to transmit between humans.

To date, unsustained human-to-human transmission has occurred among close contacts and in health care settings. Outside of health care settings, human-to-human transmission has been limited so far, the WHO said.

No specific vaccines or treatments are currently available, although several MERS-CoV-specific vaccines and treatments are under development. Treatment is supportive and based on the patient’s clinical condition and symptoms.

Since the first report of a case of MERS-CoV in Saudi Arabia in 2012 until April 2024, a total of 2,204 human cases and 860 deaths have been reported. A total of 2,613 MERS-CoV cases and 941 deaths have been reported in 27 countries, across all six WHO regions.

There was a large outbreak outside the Middle East, in South Korea, in May 2015. It was characterized as a nosocomial infection, in which 186 laboratory-confirmed cases (185 in South Korea and 1 in China) and 38 deaths were reported; however, the index case (first patient) in this outbreak had previously traveled to the Middle East, WHO said.