WHO MERS summary of current situation, literature update and risk assessment - 7 July 2015

Overview

Since 1 January 2015, 423 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS have been reported to WHO, notably from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea. The ongoing outbreak in the Republic of Korea – resulting from a single exported case with travel history in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain) and subsequent human-to-human transmission to close family contacts, to patients who shared a room or ward with infected patients, to health care workers providing care for patients before MERS was suspected or diagnosed – is similar to nosocomial outbreaks in other countries (e.g., Saudi Arabia and UAE).