faulker024

Since late February, a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak has been occurring in northcentral Saudi Arabia in Buraidah in the Al Qassim region. Through March 16, 2016, there have been 23 MERS cases reported from Buraidah by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health (SAMOH), include 6 females and 17 males, ranging in age from 22 to 84 years. Six of the cases are healthcare workers. Based on reports by the SAMOH, 11 of these individuals have died. Only five individuals have been reported to have recovered. Constructing a preliminary timeline of Buraidah outbreak Details are only available from the World Health Organization (WHO) for 18 of these cases prior to March 10, 2016. ( link , link ) At least five of the cases reported by WHO appear to be community-acquired infections which suggest that MERS may be wide-spread in the Buraidah community. These individuals include a 40 year-old male (WHO 1670) who experienced symptoms on February 22 and was hospitalized the same day. It is n...

The recent outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in the Republic of Korea (ROK) is the largest outbreak outside of the Arabian Peninsula since MERS was first reported in 2012. A total of 185 cases of MERS have been reported to date by the World Health Organization (WHO) from the ROK (see Annex 1). The media has reported that the outbreak in the ROK is over ( link ), however, WHO does not consider an infectious disease outbreak to be over until twice the maximum incubation period has passed interrupting the chain of human-to-human transmission. The maximum incubation period for MERS is believed to be14 days. The end of the outbreak will only be signaled 28 days after the last MERS-infected individual in the ROK tests negative sometime in the future. Because of the size and nature of the MERS outbreak in the ROK, researchers will be analyzing the epidemiological data from the ROK outbreak in the future to assess what can be learned from this outbreak. Critical to such a...

The most recent, cumulative World Health Organization (WHO) table of human H5N1 cases was published on March 3, 2015.[1] This table notes a total of 88 human H5N1 cases in Egypt through March 3, 2015. As I noted previously [2] the tabulation of counts based on the line list of cases published in the monthly risk summaries only totals 82 cases for Egypt in 2015 based on onset dates in reports of 2015. To understand the confusion in the Egyptian case counts in the WHO table, it is necessary to consider the 2014 totals provided by WHO. The current WHO cumulative table reports 46 cases of H5N1 in 2014 with 31 cases from Egypt.[1] However, individual enumeration of WHO-confirmed H5N1 cases based on line lists in the monthly risk assessments shows a total of 52 H5N1 cases in 2014 (based on onset dates), with 37 of these reported from Egypt.[3] The table below identifies the distribution of WHO-confirmed H5N1 from Egypt by each of the monthly summaries for 2014 through the most recent asse...

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), three West African countries continue to experience intense transmission of Ebola. More than 16,000 cases of Ebola have been reported from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in the past several months since the outbreak started earlier this year ( link ). There is some evidence that the rate of new Ebola infections in these countries is not growing as fast as previously estimated which is good news. The WHO situation report published on November 26, 2014 ( link ) states “Case incidence is stable in Guinea, stable or declining in Liberia, but may still be increasing in Sierra Leone”. However, there is great uncertainty over the quality of the reporting data emanating from West Africa on this Ebola outbreak. Also, based on the fluctuating numbers of newly reported cases in each of these three countries, it is difficult to assess the increases or decreases in the incidence of cases in these three countries. Assuming that the case numbers r...

Earlier this month, I noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) did not report information on five MERS cases from Saudi Arabia from October  (see Has WHO overlooked 5 MERS cases in Saudi Arabia? ), although theses cases were counted in the world-wide total in the Disease Outbreak News posted on November 7, 2014 ( link ). Two days ago, the WHO provided additional details about these five cases ( link )  that are not available on the statistics page of the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health website. The reporting of these additional case details is important to understanding the nature of human MERS infections. Since, the last WHO update on MERS from Saudi Arabia (through October 30, 2014), the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health website has reported almost 20 new MERS cases ( link ),. Hopefully, WHO will publish details about these cases soon as well.