MERS Watch

The deadly MERS virus has killed hundreds of people in less than three years. And for all that time, no one knew where it was coming from. This week, scientists reported the first solid evidence of a case where MERS jumped from a sick camel to person, in Saudi Arabia.

Finding MERS’ origin could be the key to stopping it. For example, many countries regularly vaccinate their poultry to protect against bird flu. If camels turn out to be the key link for human MERS cases, then vaccinating these livestock would be a likely next step. And this would protect people by protecting them from the source of the disease.

The CDC announced today that the only person who seemed to have contracted MERS from a patient within the US actually never caught the virus at all.

The agency found this out from a more definitive type of MERS test.

One of its most helpful features is that it clearly distinguishes between cases where people have recovered and are no longer a threat to public health (green) and ones where people are still sick and possibly infectious (red).

Earlier this week, the Florida patient with MERS was released from the hospital after recovering and then testing negative for the virus, according to CIDRAP News. Three people are known to have been infected with deadly MERS virus on US soil, and all three are now free of the virus. This means that as of today, there are no people in the US known to be infected with MERS.

Saudi Arabia has continued to report new MERS cases this week. CIDRAP News is following MERS very closely here, including reporting on cases that have not yet been confirmed by the World Health Organization.

So far, public-health officials know of two people in the United States who have brought over a case of the deadly MERS virus from Saudi Arabia. And now it seems one of them spread it to someone else.

That third person, a resident of Illinois, never needed medical care, is no longer infected, and is doing fine.

A mysterious illness known as MERS might turn into the next global pandemic. Or it may fizzle out. For now, public health experts are keeping a close eye on the situation — but they haven’t declared an emergency yet.

Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, was first discovered in 2012 and has a surprisingly high death rate. There have already been 572 confirmed cases and 173 deaths across 19 countries. The majority of the illness has been concentrated in Saudi Arabia.