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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 World Health Organization (WHO) is charged with tracking outbreaks of novel diseases around the world. For novel disease outbreaks such as H5N1, H7N9, SARS, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV),  etc., WHO does report cumulative updates of the counts and locations of cases providing that the member states comply with International Health Regulations (IHR) about timely reporting of cases. However, WHO does not provide a publicly available line list of cases of these novel disease outbreaks.  Such line lists of cases with epidemiological and geographic information help researchers and the general public assess the potential danger of these novel outbreaks.   Through December 2, 2013, more than 170 confirmed and probable human cases of  MERS-CoV have been reported from 11 countries including France, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tunisia,  the  United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Members of FluTrac...

With less than 60 MERS-CoV cases scattered around the world why is it so difficult for national and international public health agencies to report an accurate account of infected individuals including the number who died. The World Health Organization charged with tracking health issues around the world reports that there have been 54 cases of MERS-CoV infection and 30 deaths. [1] The CDC-USA reports a total of 55 cases and 30 deaths. [2] A tabulation provided by the Virology Down Under blog identifies a total count of 55 cases and 33 deaths. [3] FluTrackers identifies 55 cases but only 26 deaths in its list of cases. [4] And through May 30, 2013, the ECDC reports a total of 49 cases with 27 deaths. [5] This confusion over the number of MERS-CoV cases and how many deaths highlight the needs for one central, official, line list of cases that is publicly available on the internet.   Paramount in this case list is to distinguish between confirmed cases, probable cases, and suspected ...