Eight new Saudi cases push global MERS total to 130

From Lisa Schnirring at CIDRAP, excerpt :

" Saudi Arabia's health ministry today and yesterday announced eight new Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) cases, all of which involved contact with previously confirmed cases, including four possible healthcare exposures.

The patients are all younger or middle-aged adults from Riyadh and Medina, and most have mild infections or are asymptomatic, the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) said. The new detections lift the unofficial global total to 130 cases, of which 57 have been fatal.

Three of the four cases reported yesterday were asymptomatic: a 22-year-old man from Medina, a 24-year-old man who works in a health setting in Medina, and a 60-year-old man from Riyadh. The other patient is a 47-year-old man from Riyadh who is in stable condition, according to the MOH.

Of the four MERS cases reported today, all were reported from Riyadh, and three involve healthcare workers: a 47-year-old woman who had mild symptoms, a 39-year-old woman who had mild symptoms, and a 38-year-old man whose health status is stable, the MOH said. The fourth patient is a 51-year-old woman who is also in stable condition.

The newly announced cases follow closely on the heels of eight other cases that the health ministry announced on Sep 7 and Sep 8. Three of those infections were fatal.

The World Health Organization, which has not issued a MERS update since Sep 7, lists 114 global cases, 54 of which were fatal. That total does not include the 16 most recent Saudi cases."