Free Republic

BARCELONA, Spain — A team from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) just back from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, reports that there appears to be no change in either the virulence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) or its transmissibility. The "dramatic" spike in the number of MERS-CoV cases reported in the past 3 weeks is related to a seasonal increase in primary cases, combined with a "huge spillover and amplification" of secondary cases caused by in-hospital transmission to healthcare workers and other patients, said Denis Coulombier, MD, head of the unit for surveillance and response support...