The Wolrd Health Organization (WHO) reported that a joint mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the World Health Organization (WHO) met in Riyadh from 4-6 June 2013, to assess the situation due to a new coronavirus in the Kingdom. In a press statment, WHO said this virus has recently been named the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). It is a new, emerging virus that is distantly related to the virus that caused SARS. The first documented cases of MERS occurred in Jordan in early 2012. Globally, there has been to date, a total of 55 cases confirmed by laboratory testing. Of these, 40 have occurred in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the rest have been reported from other countries in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, (Middle East, Tunisia (North Africa), France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland (Europe). The overall number of cases is limited, but the virus causes death in about 60% of patients. So far, about 75% of the cases in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have been in men and most have occurred in people with one or more major chronic conditions. There appears to be three main epidemiological patterns: In the first pattern, sporadic cases occur in communities. At present, we do not know the source or how these people became infected. In the second pattern, clusters of infections occur in families. In most of these clusters, there appears to be person-to-person transmission, but it seems that this transmission is limited to people who are in close contact with a sick family member. The third pattern comprises clusters of infections in health care facilities. Such events have been reported in France, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. In these clusters, the sequence seems to be that an infected person is admitted to hospital where that person then transmits the virus to other people in the health care facility. --More 18:48 LOCAL TIME 15:48 GMT تغريد
