Saudi Arabia announced today that two more deaths from the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, taking the country's toll to 87, a day after King Abdullah tried to reassure a worried public.
A health ministry bulletin on the Internet said a total of 299 cases of the virus had been detected in the kingdom since it first appeared in September 2012.
King Abdullah was in the Red Sea city and commercial hub of Jeddah yesterday which has seen a spate of cases among health staff in recent weeks that have sparked fears that the virus has mutated to make it more transmissible from person to person.
Public concern has been fuelled by the reported resignation last week of at least four doctors at Jeddah's King Fahd Hospital after they refused to treat MERS patients for fear of infection.
The World Health Organisation had announced on Wednesday that it had offered to send international experts to Saudi Arabia to investiga! te "any evolving risk" resulting from the apparent change in transmission pattern.
MERS is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus which erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine per cent of whom died.
Source : http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/saudi-mers-death-toll-now-87-ministry-114042501525_1.html
