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Middle East Respiratory Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is reported to have infected a family cluster of three generations in Hafar Al-Batin in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) (see map below). Hafar Al-Batin is a city in the Eastern Province ( ash-Sharqīyah ) of KSA with a population of almost 400,000 people.[1] Official information from the KSA Ministry of Health is lacking on this cluster, however, scattered Arabic language media reports from the region allow a tentative reconstruction of this cluster of at least 4 cases. Other MERS-CoV cases are reported from Hafar Al-Batin, including a health care worker. Some of these other cases may be associated with this cluster.  Each of the cases in the cluster is described below.  A. 60-70?, F died (within the past few days), newly reported, not confirmed by World Health Organization (WHO). [2]  B. Fahad Al-Sahli, 38, M   died (Aug 17 or 18, 2013), son of Case A.    Confirmed by WHO.   [3]   C. 7 (8?), F rep...

The first human infections of a novel coronavirus were identified in late of 2012. The coronavirus was later named hCoV-EMC based on genetic analysis at the Erasmus Medical Center [1].   More recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted the label MERS-CoV for hCoV-EMC [2]. As noted in a previous post,   at least 50+ MERS cases have been reported from eight countries; France, Jordan, Italy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. The nature of the transmission is uncertain, but some of these infections are occurring in hospital settings; several health care workers have been infected.   Four of these clusters, one from France, one from Italy, one from Tunisia, and one from the United Kingdom, occurred outside of the Middle East region. The index cases in all four of these clusters had previously visited countries within the Arabian Peninsula. The index cases of other clusters, as well as other individual isolated ...