May 25, 2014 - HEALTH - Orlando Health officials say all of the 23 health care workers who were
exposed to the MERS, or Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome virus, have
been cleared to return to work after negative test results.
Health officials required testing for all physicians and workers at Dr.
P. Phillips Hospital and Orlando Regional Medical Center that treated
the Saudi Arabian man who contracted the virus.
The 23 workers were forced to stay home for the full 14-day incubation period of the virus.
The 44-year-old patient being treated at the hospital for MERS
was released from the hospital earlier this week after testing negative for the virus.
Officials said there is no concern that the virus would spread in Central Florida. -
Click Orlando.
Saudi Arabia, UAE Report 6 MERS Cases
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Skyline of Abu Dhabi, home to all 3 new UAE cases.
brightstorm / iStockphoto |
Six more MERS-CoV cases were reported today, three each in Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as the springtime surge of
illnesses continued, though at a more modest pace than it showed through
most of April and early May.
Also today, the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) appealed for an urgent increase in
research on MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus) in
animals, including a systematic hunt for animal and environmental
sources of human infections.
Cases in Saudi hot spots
Saudi
Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) reported one MERS case each in
Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina, three cities that have seen plenty of MERS
activity lately.
The cases involve a 46-year-old man in Jeddah
with no symptoms, a 19-year-old man with diabetes who is in an intensive
care unit in Mecca, and a 20-year-old woman in Medina with no symptoms.
The 46-year-old and the woman had contact with other MERS patients;
both are in home isolation.
The 19-year-old apparently acquired
his infection in the hospital, as he was hospitalized for other medical
reasons on May 17 and experienced respiratory symptoms May 23.
The
MOH also reported one death in a previous case, that of a 34-year-old
man in Jeddah whose illness was reported Apr 24. Four other MERS
patients were released from hospitals in Mecca and Riyadh today.
Today's report raises Saudi Arabia's MERS count to 554 cases and 178 deaths.
WHO details UAE cases
The
new cases in the UAE were reported today by the World Health
Organization (WHO), following its receipt of a report from UAE officials
2 days ago. All three cases were in Abu Dhabi.
One case is in a
71-year-old man who has several preexisting illnesses and has been
hospitalized since Feb 11, the WHO reported. He got sick with a fever on
May 4 and tested positive for MERS-CoV 3 days later. He had had contact
with another MERS case-patient, a 39-year-old female healthcare worker
whose case was reported to the WHO on May 11.
The second case
involved a 26-year-old man whose infection was detected on May 8 through
general screening at his (unnamed) workplace, though he had had no
exposure to other MERS patients and no symptoms on the day of screening.
He had had contact with cows and sheep but not camels, nor had he
consumed any raw camel products, the WHO said. For isolation purposes,
he was hospitalized from May 8 to 14.
In the third case, a
36-year-old man got sick on May 2 and was hospitalized 5 days later, the
WHO said. He tested positive on May 9 and then recovered and was
released May 12. He had preexisting illnesses, but he had no exposure to
other MERS patients, animals, or raw camel products.
The three
infections raise the WHO's MERS count to 635 cases with 193 deaths. The
number includes 17 cases that Saudi Arabia reported from May 16 to 18.
Meanwhile,
the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) today put
its own MERS count at 658 cases and 204 deaths. The numbers are listed
in the agency's weekly Communicable Disease Threats Report.
The
ECDC count, which doesn't include the latest Saudi cases, lists the
Saudi tally at 541 cases and 160 deaths. It shows the UAE as having 67
cases and 9 deaths, the second-highest totals.
FAO wants more animal research
The
FAO's call for more MERS-CoV research came after a regional technical
consultation in Oman, the agency said in a statement today.
Participants
noted the recent increase in cases in the Arabian Peninsula and the
suspicion that camels are the primary source of human cases, the FAO
said. The experts recommended:
- Raising public awareness of MERS-CoV
- Urgent investment in research and surveillance of animals
- A systematic search for potential sources of human infection from animal sources or the environment
- Joint efforts and coordination among public health authorities
Many
camels in the Middle East carry the virus or have antibodies that
suggest past exposure to it, but no one has yet figured out exactly how
it spreads from camels to humans. Experts have been calling for
case-control investigations and other studies to help answer that
question and related ones.
"There is an urgent need to focus
investigations on the epidemiology of MERS-CoV in animal species, to
prevent human primary infections and to avoid putting other people in
danger," Juan Lubroth, DVM, PhD, the FAO's chief veterinary officer,
said in today's statement.
"By better understanding the
epidemiology, we can provide the necessary guidelines to avoid spillover
from animals to humans and protect the camel or other animal industries
from potential negative consequences," he said.
In addition to more research, the FAO called for several steps to help limit the spread of MERS-CoV:
- Increased biosecurity precautions at farms and border crossings
- An emphasis on personal hygiene for people who work with livestock
- Greater region-wide information sharing and closer coordination to manage risks posed by the movement of livestock
- Possible use of animal passports or certificates for racing camels
- Engagement of the private sector, such as racing associations, breeding enterprises, and meat-packing operations
Participants
in the technical meeting included the World Organization for Animal
Health (OIE), the WHO, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and experts who are
currently collaborating with researchers and authorities of the region,
the FAO said.
The meeting also drew public health and veterinary
authorities and other specialists from a dozen countries: Ethiopia,
Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia,
Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
OIE camel report
In
other news, Omani officials submitted to the OIE a report on MERS-CoV
infections in five camels, which appears to match a media report
published 2 days ago about five infected racing camels in the country.
Both appear to match up with a
Eurosurveillance report that was published Apr 24 and described the detection of MERS-CoV in 5 of 76 camels from around Oman.
The
new OIE report said the camels had no clinical signs of illness and
that humans with exposure to the camels were tested and found free of
the virus. Testing was done by the University of Veterinary Medicine in
Vienna.
Oman has had two human MERS cases, according to today's ECDC communicable disease report. -
CIDRAP.
