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Previously, I discussed discrepancies between the MERS case counts for the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) ( link ). The WHO case count differed from the number posted on the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health website by 15 cases. At least 12 cases previously announced by the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health had not yet been posted in Disease Outbreak News by the WHO through October 21, 2014. Yesterday the WHO reported in aggregate 12 new MERS cases from Saudi Arabia from the period October 18 to October 26, 2014 ( link ). These 12 cases do not equate to the 12-case differential noted in my previous post. The most recent WHO report regarding cases from Saudi Arabia ( October 16 link ) only enumerates cases through October 11, 2014. However, between October 12 and October 16, the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health website announced five additional MERS cases, Taif (3), Riyadh (1), and Al Karj (1). Hopefully, the WHO will repor...

With Saudi Arabia reporting more than 80% of all Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) cases to date, detailed information about the individual cases from Saudi Arabia is critical to understanding the nature and spread of this novel disease. There are some discrepancies among the MERS cases reported by World Health Organization (WHO) from Saudi Arabia. Of course, WHO is constrained by the quality of data provided by its various member states. Generally, WHO provides detailed information on the initial cases of a novel disease outbreak in its online publication, Disease Outbreak News (DON). The first WHO report of a MERS [novel coronavirus] infection was published on September 23, 2012 . Between September 2012 and April 16, 2014, WHO reported details on 228 MERS cases with varying levels of details provided by the reporting member states. Of the 228 cases reported by WHO though that date, 181 were individually reported cases from Saudi Arabia. The DON of April 14, 2014 (15 reported ...