Arabic media reporting 5 suspected MERS cases in Turkey, Three of the family members have been "evicted" (evacuated) back to Saudi Arabia

Arabic media reporting 5 suspected MERS cases in Turkey, Three of the family members have been "evicted" (evacuated) back to Saudi Arabia.HT: Croft.

Via Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary: Arabic Media Reporting Suspected MERS Cases In Turkey. Excerpt:

Sharon Sanders of FluTrackers has picked up a media report from the usually reliable Al Sharq, that indicates Turkey is investigating five suspected MERS-CoV cases.

Our only source on this story at present is a syntax-challenged report appearing in Arabic press. I tend to view these reports cautiously, as machine translations are inexact, and can sometimes be misleading.

The cases are supposed to be in Trabzon. The local paper has nothing about them, nor do the major national news sources. But I'll keep checking.

Via Al-Sharq, a Saudi newspaper, the report that started a lot of digging today: The death of Saudi Arabia 'Corona' in Turkey and the evacuation of 3 cases to Riyadh. A Google translation and then a comment:

Revealed the Saudi ambassador in Turkey just Mirdad for the death of Saudi woman in middle age in a hospital in Trabzon suspected of being infected with HIV Coruna.

said in a statement «East» that there are five cases suffered ill and entered the hospital, including diseased heart was organized work her out, as has been transfer of three other cases of eviction medical to the Kingdom, in addition to the case of death.

explained that the four cases and اجهتهن problems in communicating with the medical staff in the hospital by virtue of that they do not speak English or Turkish, and the hospital staff does not speak Arabic or English, called the embassy to intervention; since sent the President of the Consular Section and one of the translators of assets at the embassy to Trabzon and do the process of translation and other actions that helped them communicate.

explained that if the death was of a woman in middle age and was accompanied by her son and daughter did not write God a cure for the ill and their health status, and the embassy move her body to Istanbul, and made ​​her sons embassy and condolences, and revealed to them the situation they were in their mother and an understanding of all the details.

As has been their help in travel procedures were booking them and then went to Riyadh. And that there is a state was suffering a disease of the heart and put her pacemaker and discharged from the hospital.

between Mirdad that there is suspicion of disease Corona has not been confirmed, pointing to the attention of the Ministry of Health Turkish SUBJECT after continuing the embassy with her. explained that the charge of Turkey's senior Ministry of Health showed a keen interest in the cases, and spoke to the hospital Trabzon directly and sent a medical team sampling of cases, pointing out that the sources of the Ministry of Health Turkish suggested suspicion of injury Pkorona. , and has shown that the nature of city ​​high above sea level to 1350 meters affect human health, negatively especially those with weak infrastructure.

If I understand the basics, a Saudi family in Trabzon appears to have contracted a disease with MERS symptoms, and a female member, with heart problems, has died. What the family was doing in Trabzon (or in Turkey, for that matter) is unexplained. Nor do we know how long they had been there. The Turkish Ministry of Health (whose own website has nothing to say about this) has taken an interest in the case. Three of the family members have been "evicted" (evacuated) back to Saudi Arabia, as well as the woman's body. The Minister of Health has taken an interest in the cases, and has sent a team to Trabzon to obtain samples from the cases.
Given this level of official interest, it's surprising that the Turkish media don't seem to have anything on this story, but we can hope for more details as the weekend continues.