Friday 2 August 2013

MERS-CoV cases rise by 3...how is the health of 83M?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) Ministry of Health (MOH) has confirmed MERS-CoV in a 67-year old female (67F) with underlying disease. That took 7-days to confirm and announce. 

The MERS-CoV tally is now at 94 cases, 46 deaths (PFC of 48.9%).

The other 2 new cases are both 39Fs and healthcare workers (form Asir and Riyadh) exposed to known cases; both have mild disease. 

This is against a backdrop of a second media report of the earlier described 83M having died. The first report describing his death also mentioned a 63F MERS-CoV case (could this be the latest 67F?) and a male case of unknown age (cannot be a case form today - they were female) as being positive. 

However, despite the wide press reporting of it, the death of 83M remains unconfirmed by KSA MOH or WHO. The last KSA MOH bulletin related to this case described a death without detail...

"Within the framework of the epidemiological surveillance of the novel Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has announced that one confirmed case of this virus, aged 83, has been recorded in Asir.
Within the same vein, MOH has announced the death of one case, who had been previously announced to be infected with this virus in Asir, May Allah have mercy upon him."
That does not describe the death of the same person...to me at least. So its been 5-days since the popular media noted the death of a case - a death not confirmed by announcement through official channels. 

The last MERS-related death with any detail was that of 66M in King Fahd Hospital.

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