Saudi, expat infected with MERS

Two new cases of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ((MERS-CoV) were recorded by the Ministry of Health late Friday.
The Command and Control Center (CCC) at the ministry reported that an expatriate worker in Riyadh and a Saudi national in Hofuf had contracted the infection, bringing the total number of confirmed MERS cases in the Kingdom to 845 since the disease was first detected in June 2012.
The CCC is the disease monitoring body of the MoH which was recently moved from Jeddah to Riyadh in order to achieve the objectives of combating infections like the coronavirus and Ebola.
An official at the CCC said that the expat worker aged 37 is in critical condition, while the Saudi patient, 76, is stable.
Notably, 475 patients have recovered from MERS so far, while a total of 364 patients have lost their lives to the virus.
There are currently six active cases receiving treatment at various hospitals across the Kingdom, the MoH announced.
Apart from moving the CCC from Jeddah to Riyadh in order to push the work process at the center, the MoH has also hired a team of experts from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently, to help combat the spread of infectious and noncommunicable diseases in the Kingdom including MERS and Ebola.
The decision is part of an agreement recently signed by the CCC with the CDC and includes training and support for Saudi professionals under the field epidemiology training program (FETP), which will be carried out in cooperation with the King Saud University (KSU).
MoH spokesman Khalid Al-Mirghalani told Arab News that the ministry has been taking action to contain the disease and is currently working in close coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) to this end.