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CIDRAP: Florida health workers have symptoms after MERS patient contact.HT: Croft.
CIDRAP report by Lisa Schnirring: Florida
health workers have symptoms after MERS patient contact. Excerpt:
Florida
health officials are monitoring two health workers who came down with flulike
symptoms after unprotected contact with the second imported US Middle East
respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) patient when he first sought
care.
In
addition, amid a flurry of activity with the US infections and cases still
rising in Saudi Arabia, with four more reported today, the World Health
Organization (WHO) emergency committee on MERS met. The group will announce
tomorrow if the latest developments warrant a public health emergency of
international concern.
At
a media telebriefing at the Orlando hospital where the MERS patient and one of
the health workers are being treated in isolation, health officials also said
they are monitoring roughly 100 local people who may have been exposed to the
virus. Those being monitored include employees at another Orlando hospital the
patient visited while accompanying someone who underwent a medical
procedure.
Though
MERS-CoV does not appear to pass easily from person to person in the community,
the risk of transmission is much greater in close contact situations, such as
when family members or healthcare workers are caring for sick patients. Also,
experts have said hospital transmission is magnifying a surge in infections in
Saudi Arabia, with mystery still swirling around how the virus is spreading in
the facilities.
Both
of the imported US cases are in health workers who live in Saudi Arabia and are
employed by hospitals, one in Jeddah and the other in Riyadh.
Related:
US: 20 health workers watched for MERS symptoms
Via InfoTel. News: MERS 101: If you've missed
it until now, there's a new disease afoot.
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