Countries around the world are on high alert for the spread of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The viral infection has so far been limited to the Middle East and to South Korea. But as with any infectious disease, it can be carried by travelers to Europe and elsewhere.
Some recent cases in Europe include:
- A man who survived MERS earlier this year has died in Germany of complications from the viral infection. There is no evidence that he infected anyone in Germany. Two hundred people that he came into contact with have tested negative for the virus.
- A hospital in Prague has admitted a patients with symptoms of MERS because was recently in South Korea.
- A South Korean man in Slovakia was tested for MERS, but was found to be ill from another infection.
Individual cases have occurred in Austria, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United States. As with the above cases, these were in people who caught the virus in the Middle East and then traveled home before symptoms developed. The man who died in Germany probably contracted MERS while visiting an animal market in Saudi Arabia in February.
MERS is infectious, but does not appear to be as infectious as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus to which it is related. An outbreak of SARS in 2002 and 2003 infected 8,000 and killed 800 people in several countries in Asia and in North America. To prevent the spread, the World Health Organization is working with countries affected by MERS to coordinate the global health response.
As its name indicates, the MERS outbreak has primarily affected countries in the Middle East, according to the World Health Organization. The bulk of cases have occurred in Saudi Arabia where the disease was first seen in 2012.
The virus was carried from Saudi Arabia to South Korea by a business traveler. The infection was then passed to 150 people, of whom 19 now have died.