Context

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Saudi Arabia reported six fresh cases of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) from August through February 2022.

About

About Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS):

• Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory infection that is caused by a coronavirus called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
• Infection with MERS-CoV can cause severe disease resulting in high mortality.
• Approximately 35% of patients with MERS have died, but this may be an overestimate of the true mortality rate, as mild cases of MERS-CoV may be missed by existing surveillance systems and until more is known about the disease, the case fatality rates are counted only amongst the laboratory-confirmed cases.
• Humans are infected with MERS-CoV from direct or indirect contact with dromedary camels that are the natural host and zoonotic source of the MERS-CoV infection.
• MERS-CoV has demonstrated the ability to transmit between humans.
• MERS-CoV belongs to the same family of viruses that causes COVID-19.
• Symptoms: The symptoms of the disease are fever, cough, shortness of breath, pneumonia gastrointestinal symptoms (including diarrhea).