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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 MERS outbreak in the Republic of Korea began when a 68-year-old man returned from visiting countries on the Arabian Peninsula in early May. He was symptomatic after returning to Korea and visited several hospitals.  He infected a few health care workers before being diagnosed with MERS and hospitalized.  Since then at least 50 people have been infected.  Some of these cases represent third generation infection; hundreds of people are currently being monitored. This outbreak is far from over. Below is a preliminary timeline of the first 35 cases reported by the Korea Ministry of Health. The data and information used here have been derived from numerous publicly available sources including WHO, various ministries of health, internet bloggers, internet forums, and other media reports available online. For some individual cases, specific details are lacking or conflicting information is presented in online reports. However, the information and graphics presented here are ...

In late December 2014, Egypt surpassed Indonesia in the number of reported A(H5N1) cases.[1] As of March 3, 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed a worldwide cumulative total of 784 human H5N1 cases, about 37% or 292 of these cases have been reported from Egypt (Table 1). Eighty-two of those cases from Egypt occurred in the first two months of 2015.[2] In addition, media reports suggests that another four cases have occurred since late February in Egypt and may be included in future monthly updates by WHO.[3]   The recent WHO report from 3 March 2015 notes “ The number of laboratory-confirmed human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection in Egypt with onsets of illness in the months of December 2014, January and February 2015 are the highest numbers reported by any country in a single month.” To put these statistics in perspective, about 36% of all H5N1 cases reported from Egypt have occurred in the last 3 months. The graph below shows the distributi...

As of October 6, 2014, seven countries have reported cases of Ebola as noted below.   The Democratic Republic of Congo has reported at least 53 cases from a local Ebola outbreak ( link )   not associated with the current outbreak that apparently originated in Guinea in December 2013 ( link ).    Guinea (977 confirmed cases) link Liberia (931 confirmed cases) link Nigeria (19 confirmed cases) link Senegal (1 imported infection) link Sierra Leone (2179 confirmed cases) link Spain (1 locally acquired infection) link United State of America (1 imported infection) link

The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has announced two new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), both from the city of Al Jubail in eastern Saudi Arabia. The first is a 34 year-old male reported on August 29, 2014 and the second is a 60 year-old male reported on September 8, 2014. The older man is intensive care. Notably, both of these cases are health care workers which suggests that there is another hospital outbreak of MERS in Al Jubail.   Al Jubail is located about 30 miles north of Dammam where two other MERS cases have been recently reported. These 4 cases could indicate that MERS is again active in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Links:   MOH: '1 New Confirmed Corona Case Recorded'    MOH: '1 New Confirmed Corona Case Recorded' Another Cluster of MERS cases in Saudi Arabia