Saudis, WHO report 8 asymptomatic MERS cases

From Robert Roos at CIDRAP :

" Saudi Arabia reported nine new MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) cases in the past 3 days, including six cases that were asymptomatic.

In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Jun 22 that two Saudi MERS cases that had been announced earlier were also asymptomatic. The Saudi and WHO reports offered the clearest evidence yet of such cases, which suggest the possibility that people can unknowingly carry and spread the virus.

Also over the weekend, the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) appealed for fast, complete reporting of MERS-CoV cases, in the wake of a meeting in Cairo of public health experts from all countries that have had cases.

New Saudi cases

The Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) announced the latest cases and deaths in statements on Jun 21 and 23.

The Jun 21 announcement reported the illness in a 41-year-old woman in Riyadh and a 32-year-old Saudi citizen in the country's Eastern region. The woman is a contact of a previous case-patient and was in stable condition, while the 32-year-old had cancer and was in an intensive care unit. The statement also noted the death of a previously reported patient but gave no details.

The MOH's Jun 23 statement announced the six asymptomatic cases and one symptomatic one. Four of the silent cases were in children between the ages of 7 and 15, all of whom had contact with other cases in Riyadh and the Eastern region.

The other two symptom-free cases involved female healthcare workers (HCWs in the Eastern region and Al-Ahsa. The MOH did not specify if the two HCWs were exposed to MERS patients, but it seemed likely, since Al-Ahsa was the site of recent hospital outbreaks."