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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...

A health care worker in Spain is the first individual outside of Africa to locally acquire an Ebola infection.   A nurse treating an Ebola case in a Madrid hospital in September has tested positive for Ebola ( link ). The nature of transmission from the Ebola patient to the nurse has not yet been reported.   The reports from the Ebola outbreak in Africa show that health care workers are frequently infected and die from treating Ebola patients ( link ). It was widely assumed that health care workers in the West Africa countries became infected because of lack of adequate PPE, proper training, and overwhelmed facilities. This new case in a European hospital raises concerns about the nature of Ebola transmission in hospital settings everywhere in the world.    The Ebola case in Texas, USA, will provide an additional test of the nature of transmission of this virus ( link ). So far no secondary cases have been reported in Texas. It will be several more weeks before Texa...