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Saudi Arabian doctors say they've identified camels as one source of MERS infections in humans. The scientists report they matched genetic samples from the virus that killed a Saudi man last November to virus samples present in one of nine camels that he owned. (snip) The health risk from MERS to the American public is low, U.S. officials have said, because the virus is only passed through close contact.

MERS is very scary. This week, while avoiding the term global health emergency, the World Health Organization announced that the deadly viral infection was both serious and urgent. So far, there have been 571 confirmed cases of MERS; 171 of those people died from the disease. There's one place, however, where the mood about MERS isn't scaring everyone. It's also the place where the infection was first reported in 2012 and where almost 500 recorded cases have been found so far: Saudi Arabia. And the skepticism about the virus has taken a strange turn in Saudi Arabia, where people have...

TEHRAN - Iran has suffered its first fatality from the Middle Eastern respiratory virus, its official news agency reported Thursday, a day after the first cases in Islamic Republic were publicized. The IRNA news agency quoted Health Ministry official Mohammad Mahdi Gouya as saying the virus killed a 53-year-old woman in Kerman,

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry says 13 people have died over the last two weeks from the Middle Eastern respiratory virus. The ministry says 186 people in total have died from the virus since it was discovered in 2012. The ministry said late Wednesday another 565 people had contracted the virus

The debate weighing up the relative harms and benefits of e-cigarettes continues. New evidence suggests that e-cigarettes boost the virulence of drug-resistant pathogens, according to researchers at the VA San Diego Healthcare System and the University of California, San Diego. :snip: Dr. Crotty Alexander and her team grew methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in culture. They found that exposing the MRSA to e-cigarette vapor - similar in concentration to e-cigarette products available on the market - increased the virulence of the bacteria, making it better able to establish infection in the body and cause more severe disease. :snip: The e-cigarette vapor...

US Centres for Disease Control scientists study infectiousness of mild Mers casesPUBLISHED : Sunday, 18 May, 2014, 6:26am UPDATED : Sunday, 18 May, 2014, 2:42pm Highlight: "In its latest tally, Saudi Arabia’s health ministry said the total number of infections in the kingdom from the coronavirus since it first appeared in 2012 now stood at 529 people. "Among the latest fatalities were two men aged 67 and 55 and an 80-year-old woman in Jeddah, the port city where a spate of cases among staff at King Fahd Hospital last month led to the dismissal of its director and the...

Scientists leading the fight against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome say the next critical front will be understanding how the virus behaves in people with milder infections, who may be spreading the illness without being aware they have it. Establishing that may be critical to stopping the spread of MERS, which emerged in the Middle East in 2012 and has so far infected more than 500 patients in Saudi Arabia alone. It kills about 30 percent of those who are infected. It is becoming increasingly clear that people can be infected with MERS without developing severe respiratory disease, said Dr David...

What is a pandemic? According to Flu.gov, a pandemic is defined as a global outbreak of disease. It’s not determined by the number of deaths, but by how quickly it spreads. Do they happen? Pandemics do happen, as in three outbreaks of flu pandemic in the 20th century: Spanish flu killed $40-50 million in 1918 Asian flu in 1957 killed 2 million people 1 million deaths from Hong Kong flu in 1968 What are the chances? I don’t have a crystal ball, and there is really no way to predict when and how a pandemic can happen. Certain “tells” would...

Reuters) - The biggest risk that Middle East Respiratory Syndrome will become a global epidemic, ironically, may lie with globe-trotting healthcare workers. From Houston to Manila, doctors and nurses are recruited for lucrative postings in Saudi Arabia, where MERS was first identified in 2012. Because the kingdom has stepped up hiring of foreign healthcare professionals in the last few years, disease experts said, there is a good chance the MERS virus will hitch a ride on workers as they return home. "This is how MERS might spread around the world," said infectious disease expert Dr Amesh Adalja of the University...

NY Daily News: Third case of MERS confirmed in Illinois resident The unnamed resident tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome after having contact with the first patient in Indiana, who contracted the virus while traveling in Saudi Arabia. The second case was reported in Florida, but is not linked to the other two

People are taking photos and videos of themselves kissing camels in defiance of a warning from Saudi health authorities not to go near the animals, which have been linked to the deadly Mers virus. In recent days, Saudi Arabia has urged people to wear masks and gloves when dealing with camels, to stay away from raw camel meat and camel milk, and not to go near sick animals, the newspaper Gulf News reports. But some people have refused to listen to the government's advice, posting videos and sending messages in support of camels. In one video, a man stands between...

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...

Two health workers at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, who were exposed to a patient with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) have begun showing flu-like symptoms, and one of the two has been hospitalized. Officials at the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital said on Tuesday the two healthcare workers were exposed to the patient - the second confirmed case of MERS on U.S. soil - in the emergency department before it became clear that he might be infected with the virus, which is often deadly. The second healthcare worker is being isolated in his home and watched for signs of infection.

NEW YORK (AP) - Health officials have confirmed a second U.S. case of a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East. The latest case is not an American - he is a resident of Saudi Arabia, visiting Florida, who is now in an Orlando hospital. Officials: 2nd US case of MERS reported

Health officials have confirmed a second U.S. case of a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East.

It's called Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, after the region where almost all the patients have been reported. But the name may turn out to be a misnomer. A new study has found the virus in camels from Sudan and Ethiopia, suggesting that Africa, too, harbors the pathogen. That means MERS may sicken more humans than previously thought—and perhaps be more likely to trigger a pandemic. MERS has sickened 183 people and killed 80, most of them in Saudi Arabia. A couple of cases have occurred in countries outside the region, such as France and the United Kingdom, but...

Enlarge Image Crowd control? Public health experts worry that the annual hajj could increase the incidence of MERS. Credit: Bluemangoa2z/Wikimedia Commons The World Health Organization (WHO) is convening an emergency committee to determine whether the novel coronavirus that emerged in the Middle East last year constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern." Keiji Fukuda, Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment at the WHO, announced the move at a press conference today in Geneva. Fukuda said the committee would be drawn from a roster established under International Health Regulations and include experts in public health, epidemiology, virology and...

More than two million Muslims descend on Mecca for the annual Hajj each year. Saudi authorities are advising pilgrims to wear face masks in overcrowded places. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File) (CNSNews.com) – As Saudi and U.N. health authorities report new infections from a troubling new respiratory disease, there are concerns that the approaching Hajj – the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca – could increase the risk of spreading the virus as pilgrims return to their home countries. Meanwhile the U.S. government, in a notice published in the Federal Register Wednesday, declared that the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV, or...