Egypt Records First Case of Deadly MERS Mystery Virus
Egyptian authorities have detected the first case of a dangerous SARS-like virus in the country, the state news agency MENA said on Saturday.
MENA said a 27-year-old civil engineer was diagnosed on Saturday morning after returning from Saudi Arabia, where the Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, has been centered. It said the man was quarantined upon his arrival at Cairo airport Friday and transported to a nearby hospital.
MERS belongs to a family of viruses known as coronaviruses that include both the common cold and a disease known as SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed some 800 people in a global outbreak in 2003.
MERS can cause symptoms such as fever, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure. There is no vaccine or treatment for the MERS virus, and it is still unclear how it is transmitted. It also has been detected in Asia and Europe.
Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said late on Friday that five more people in the kingdom have died from MERS. The ministry said 92 people have died and 313 have contracted the virus in Saudi since September 2012.
King Abdullah fired his health minister on Monday, as officials struggle to alleviate public concerns amid a spike in infections.
On Saturday, the new health minister, Adel Faqih, announced the country was reserving three medical centers in several cities for treating MERS cases exclusively, as part of a nationwide plan for containing the disease's spread.
In a statement on the ministry's website, Faqih said the centers would be equipped with the latest medical technology for diagnosing and treating the virus. He also said he plans to invite experts from Germany, Britain, France and the U.S. to study the outbreak.
PHOTO: The MERS virus REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo
by Wall Street Journal
Egypt Records First Case of Deadly MERS Mystery Virus
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