The first case, a man with underlying health conditions, was taken to hospital in early April after developing a cough, fever and body aches. He later died of the disease.
But two other men at the same hospital, both aged 60, have also tested positive for the coronavirus – sparking a broad effort by health officials to track further infections before it can spread further. Dozens of people have been tested.
“Hospitals can serve as a source of prevention or amplification of transmission,” said Dr. Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
“I have spent a lot of time studying Mers infection cases in healthcare and used those lessons to strengthen healthcare bioprep, and honestly, THIS is why we invest in infection prevention programs,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Mers is 'still there and still a threat'
Mers was first discovered in 2012, when it jumped from camels to humans in Saudi Arabia, and it has since spread to 27 other countries. According to the WHO, 2,204 cases and 860 deaths have been reported worldwide – the vast majority, more than 80 percent, occurred in Saudi Arabia.
Earlier this year, the country also reported a fatal case in Taif – a city 800 kilometers west of Riyadh, on the Red Sea.
There have been several major chains of infection in healthcare facilities – including the largest outbreak outside the Middle East, in South Korea in 2015. The country confirmed 185 cases and 38 fatalities as the coronavirus swept through 24 hospitals.
While several Mers treatments and vaccines are in clinical development, unlike Covid-19, none have been clinically tested and approved by regulators.
“[This is] a good reminder that we have no proven antiviral treatments, vaccines or rapid diagnostics for Mers,” said Dr Tom Fletcher, an infectious disease specialist at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
The WHO said the latest cases do not change the overall risk assessment, although it “expects that further cases of Mers-CoV infection will be reported from the Middle East and/or other countries where Mers-CoV is circulating in camels”.
Health analytics company Airfinty, which monitors disease outbreaks worldwide, said there was a “major threat” to the city of Riyadh.
“Mers-CoV [is] still exists and is still a threat,” said Prof. Peter Horby, Director of the University of Oxford's Pandemic Sciences Institute on X.[Saudi Arabia] has extensive experience in detecting and controlling healthcare-related MERS transmission – other places are less aware and less prepared.”
Prof David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said there had been “no change in the epidemiology” with these infections.
He added: “The index case is not the first case but was probably infected from the first case – they are now looking for that case.”
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