MERS has quietly kept a steady pace, which has lulled some into the belief that the infection might not pose pandemic or epidemic concerns.
But its relentless spread to neighboring countries to the Arabian peninsula, poses questions as to how it is spread, and what are the carriers of the disease and its natural reservoir.
Saudi Arabia is thick into its yearly Hajj. So far, numbers of infected people have held steady, but the Coronavirus does have an insidiously long incubation period, and can jump from one healthy carrier to another, as has been demonstrated by a handful of cases in Europe and the Arabian peninsula, where the infection is prevalent.
The patient, like many others who are infected with the Mers virus and exhibit serious symptoms, has an underlying condition, diabetes, which can worsen the picture of his treatment and recovery.
So far the persistent Coronavirus has demonstrated a much higher mortality than the previous Coronavirus epidemic of 2003 that quickly infected upwards of 8,000 people, but so far it has a much lower degree of virality. In addition, Mers has a pernicious complication, kidney failure, which worsens the prognosis of those who exhibit the stronger symptoms.
Just yesterday a further case of Mers was identified in a 23 year old man in Qatar, who had been in contact with another patient. The interesting thing, is that in this case, the man worked with animals in the same barn as the previously infected patient. He is however considered to be a mild case.
Source : France 24/ WHO/ 10.30.13
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