Two Foreigners Die of MERS in Jeddah

Fear is rising over the spread of the dreaded respiratory virus as two foreigners have died of the MERS virus in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

The ministry said five more people were infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in the western city, including two foreign medics aged 54.

MERS Claims Life of a Foreigner in Saudi Arabia
The authorities of health ministry of Saudi Arabia have sought to calm fears over the spreading respiratory illness after a foreigner died from MERS.

The latest deaths of a 64-year-old and 44-year-old, whose nationalities were undisclosed, bring to 76 the overall number of people to have died of MERS in Saudi Arabia, from a total of 231 infections.

Panic over the spread of MERS among medical staff in Jeddah this month forced the temporary closure of a hospital emergency room, prompting Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabiah to visit the facility in a bid to calm the public.

On Wednesday, at least four doctors at the King Fahd hospital reportedly resigned after refusing to treat MERS patients, apparently out of fear of infection.

64 Villagers in Malaysia Quarantined Over MERS Virus
64 people in a village in Malaysia have been quarantined after one of the residents died of a respiratory illness.

MERS was initially concentrated in eastern Saudi Arabia but it now affects other areas.

The World Health Organisation said Thursday it had been told of 243 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infections worldwide, of which 93 have proved fatal.

Foreigner Dies of MERS in Saudi, Report Sources
In the Saudi capital a foreigner has died after she contracted MERS, reports health ministry, bringing the nationwide death toll to 73.

The virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.

A recent study said the virus has been "extraordinarily common" in camels for at least 20 years, and may have been passed directly from the animals to humans.

Source-AFP