Middle East respiratory syndrome

A third patient who is believed to be infected with the new coronavirus has been hospitalized in Singapore, TASS reported.

The Ministry of Health stated that the 69-year-old man had been hospitalized and quarantined. He is in stable condition.

A 61-year-old man has died from pneumonia in the central Chinese city of Wuhan after an outbreak of a yet to be identified virus while seven others are in critical condition, the Wuhan health authorities said on Jan. 11.   

A cluster of more than 50 pneumonia cases in China's central city of Wuhan may be due to a newly emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the deadly SARS and MERS outbreaks, World Health Organization (WHO) said on Jan. 8.   

Scientists at the Queen Mary University in London say India is a potential "incubator for superbacteria," Newsru reported.

These bacteria are not affected by existing antibiotics.

South Korea announced on Dec. 23 the official end to a deadly outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that killed 36 people and sparked widespread panic in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

MERS coronavirus infections have soared in Saudi Arabia ahead of the hajj pilgrimage, killing three people and forcing a Riyadh hospital to close its emergency ward, officials and newspapers said on Aug. 20. 

A Saudi medical official says authorities have temporarily closed an emergency ward in one of the kingdom's largest hospitals after at least 46 people, including hospital staff, contracted the potentially fatal Middle East respiratory syndrome, also known as MERS.
     

South Korea reported three new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome on June 21, bringing the total to 169 in the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia, but Thailand said it had no new infections.

South Korea said June 19 that the MERS outbreak that has killed 24 people appears to have begun subsiding, as it reported one new case - the lowest rate of new infections in two weeks.

This brought to 166 the total number of confirmed cases of the disease in the country since the first was confirmed on May 20, the health ministry said.

Thousands of South Korean schools that were shut to stop the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) reopened on June 15 as the country sought to return to normal, nearly four weeks into an outbreak that shows signs of slowing.