Second Dutch MERS case revealed

Posted by Zack Newmark on 19:29 CEST, Thursday, 15, May, 2014 in Health, Netherlands | 0 comments

A woman from Den Haag was confirmed by authorities as the second case of MERS in the Netherlands. Dutch public health agency RIVM said the woman is related to the male patient with the respiratory virus currently in quarantine at a Den Haag hospital.

The pair were both infected during a trip to Saudi Arabia where they visited Mecca and Medina. Both are reportedly in stable condition.

The female patient is in an isolation unit at a Zwolle facility.

Investigators are rapidly trying to identify everyone who has come in contact with either of the two. Though MERS is difficult to transfer via most human-to-human interaction, the virus causes the death of nearly 40 percent of those who contact the illness.

Since 2012, MERS has been reported in over 500 people, mostly who either live in our gave visited the Middle East. Of the current outbreak, 110 people have died.

Front page & upper left image: The view through an electron microsope of MERS-coronavirus particles (CDC/Maureen Metcalfe, Cynthia Goldsmith, Azaibi Tamin)

http://www.nltimes.nl/2014/05/15/second-dutch-mers-case-revealed/