Iran reports 2 MERS-CoV cases: 20th country [UPDATED]

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Head of Communicable Disease Control (CDC) at the Iran Ministry of Health (MOH), Dr. Mohammad Mahdi Reports seem to indicate 2 sisters, one critically ill, have been confirmed as cases and 2 suspected cases, perhaps family members, are being observed/investigated for MERS-CoV.

I'll await the WHO report (which will hopefully appear soon) with more details but what we have so far suggests local spread, so the pink (unknown origin of case acquisition) will change to another colour of some sort, in the future.

The WHO were awaiting official notification from Iran's MOH about 10-hours ago.

@HelenBranswell Aware of reports on this, but have not receive official notification as per International Health Regulations (IHR)
— WHO (@WHO) May 26, 2014

A story from AFP [7] notes that the 2 sisters are being treated in the same hospital in Kerman, where they were believed to have acquired their infection from a pilgrim returning to Iran from Saudi Arabia. No mention of whether that pilgrim was tested and found to me MERS-CoV positive.

h/t to @Malaekeh and @HelenBranswell for alerting us to the CDC report.

Resources...

1. Crawford Kilian's post..
   http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/h5n1/2014/05/iran-reports-first-mers-cases.html
2. MOH announcement..
   http://www.behdasht.gov.ir/?siteid=1&fkeyid=&siteid=1&pageid=127&newsview=108713
3. FluTracker's thread..
   http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=223788
4. Treyfish's post
   http://swineflumagazine.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/iran-identification-of-novel-virus-2.html
5. Mike Coston's post..
   http://afludiary.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/irans-moh-reports-2-mers-cases-testing.html
6. PressTV - English detail
   http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/05/27/364327/iran-confirms-two-cases-of-mers/
7. AFP Report
   http://www.interaksyon.com/article/87818/iran-reports-first-2-mers-cases