[Thanks ProMED for mentioning us below]
Published Date: 2013-06-02 04:56:36
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> MERS-CoV - Eastern Mediterranean (16): Italy ex Jordan, contact cases, WHO
Archive Number: 20130602.1750425
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org
In this report:
[1] Italy ex Jordan: WHO
[2] Italy ex Jordan: contact cases, MOH
[3] Jordan: surveillance, newswire
[4] Saudi Arabia: 3 new deaths, MOH
******
[1] Italy ex Jordan: WHO
Date: Sat 1 Jun 2013
Source: WHO Global Alert and Response (GAR), Disease Outbreak News [edited]
http://www.who.int/csr/don/don_updates/en/index.html
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus - update 1 Jun 2013
----------------------------------------------------------------
The
Ministry of Health in Italy, through the European Union's Early Warning
Response System, has notified WHO of a laboratory confirmed case with
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in a resident in
the country.
The patient is a 45 year old man with recent travel
from Jordan. He returned to Italy on 25 May 2013 with symptoms of cough
and fatigue. His condition deteriorated and he was hospitalised on 28
May 2013. He is currently in a stable condition.
A laboratory
test was conducted by the influenza reference laboratory of Tuscany and
confirmed by the National Influenza Center of the Istituto Superiore di
Sanita.
Globally, from September 2012 to date, WHO has been
informed of a total of 51 laboratory confirmed cases of infection with
MERS-CoV, including 30 deaths.
WHO has received reports of
laboratory confirmed cases originating in the following countries in the
Middle East to date: Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE). France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, and the United Kingdom
have also reported laboratory confirmed cases; they were either
transferred there for care of the disease or returned from the Middle
East and subsequently became ill. In France, Tunisia, and the United
Kingdom, there has been limited local transmission among patients who
had not been to the Middle East but had been in close contact with the
laboratory confirmed or probable cases.
Based on the current
situation and available information, WHO encourages all member states to
continue their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections
(SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns.
Health care
providers are advised to maintain vigilance. Recent travellers returning
from the Middle East who develop SARI should be tested for MERS-CoV as
advised in the current surveillance recommendations. Specimens from
patients' lower respiratory tracts should be obtained for diagnosis
where possible. Clinicians are reminded that MERS-CoV infection should
be considered even with atypical signs and symptoms, such as diarrhoea,
in patients who are immunocompromised.
Health care facilities are
reminded of the importance of systematic implementation of infection
prevention and control (IPC). Health care facilities that provide care
for patients suspected or confirmed with MERS-CoV infection should take
appropriate measures to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus
to other patients, health care workers and visitors.
--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Marianne Hopp
[2] Italy ex Jordan: contact cases, MOH
Date: Sat 1 Jun 2013
Source: Italy Ministry of Health press release [in Italian, trans., edited]
http://www.salute.gov.it/portale/news/p3_2_4_1_1.jsp?lingua=italiano&menu=salastampa&p=comunicatistampa&id=3963
Novel coronavirus, 2 additional confirmed cases in Italy
--------------------------------------------------------
The
cases are 2 close contacts of the 1st confirmed patient; both are
currently in stable condition; the Ministry of Health is following the
situation closely.
The Tuscany Region reported to the Ministry of
Health this afternoon [1 Jun 2013] that 2 people, already under
surveillance because they had been in close contact with the 1st
confirmed case, have developed clinical respiratory symptoms of the
disease and are currently in a stable condition.
Laboratory tests
performed by Regional Health Authorities and by the National Institute
of Health confirmed the infection with the Middle East respiratory
syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
The cases are a 2 year old girl
(a family member of the index case), and a coworker of the same patient
[presumably the 1st case]. Both patients are hospitalized under
isolation in Florence hospitals.
Human transmission between
people who have had close and prolonged contact with confirmed patients
has been documented elsewhere in Europe, in domestic or nosocomial
environments.
The Ministry of Health is following closely the
situation and remains in close contact with the Tuscany regional health
authorities.
--
communicated by:
Giuseppe Michieli
FluTrackers
<gimi69@libero.it>
[Additional
information was submitted by Roberto Labanti <rlabanti@gmail.com>
who provided a newswire from Firenze Repubblica, along with a machine
translation (see http://firenze.repubblica.it/cronaca/2013/06/01/news/sars_controlli_su_una_bambina_la_nipote_del_paziente_giordano-60124632/?ref=HREC1-6), and by "Commonground", <pudge0221@yahoo.com> from http://pandemicinformationnews.blogspot.com/ who also submitted a similar newswire about these additional cases and contacts.
These
newswires (both in Italian) say that the young child is the
granddaughter of the index case, and that the other case is a colleague
of the index case -- the index case works at a hotel and had gone to
work the 1st day back in Florence before seeking medical care. They also
mention that the index case was ill while on the plane returning to
Italy, and that there are an additional 40 contacts under observation
and another 12 under observation in Jordan.
The addition of these
contact cases in Italy raises the total number of laboratory confirmed
cases of MERS-CoV to 53, including 33 deaths (see report from Saudi MOH
below reporting 3 new fatalities among previously reported cases).
For a map of Italy, see http://healthmap.org/r/77hH and for a map showing Jordan, see http://healthmap.org/r/1CMW. - Mod.MPP]
[3] Jordan: surveillance, newswire
Date: Sat 1 Jun 2013
Source: Ammon News [edited]
http://en.ammonnews.net/article.aspx?ArticleNo=21210#.UarcC5XvKYk
The
Ministry of Health on Saturday [1 Jun 2013] informed the World Health
Organization (WHO) representative in Amman, Akram Altoum, that it had
made prompt contacts with Italian health authorities after on Friday [30
Jun 2013] Italy reported its 1st coronavirus case, a 40 year old
Italian who had traveled to Jordan. Health minister Mjalli Mheilan
called the ministry's special coronavirus committee into a meeting today
[1 Jun 2013] to take immediate measures after the reports that the
infected person had traveled to Jordan.
The committee also
contacted Italian authorities to learn full details of the case and more
about the people with whom the Italian came in contact in Jordan so
that authorities could conduct an expanded epidemiology probe and gather
more information about the infection.
"We called the WHO
regional office in Cairo and the head office in Geneva after the
ministry of health informed us about its procedures to gain more
information about the case from the period before the infection, as well
as the details of the probe by Italian authorities," Altoum told Petra.
He
said the 40 year old patient, who resides in Italy and had stayed in
Jordan for 40 days, is in good condition, adding that he was awaiting
news about the locations he had traveled to in Jordan and the people he
had met with, in order to share information with the ministry as it
begins the epidemiology probe.
To date, 50 cases of the
coronavirus have been reported worldwide, and 30 of the infected people
have died [with the addition of the 3 cases in Italy and the 3 newly
reported fatalities in Saudi Arabia, the global total of laboratory
confirmed cases is now 53, including 33 fatalities. - Mod.MPP]
In
2012, the Ministry of Health reported the deaths of 2 people due to the
virus, which can cause coughing, fever, and pneumonia. But no new cases
or deaths have so far been reported this year [2013]. [There was a
cluster of 13 cases of severe acute respiratory illness involving an
intensive care unit (ICU) in Jordan in April 2012 including 2 deaths.
Laboratory testing of these cases resulting in confirmation of MERS-CoV
infection in only the 2 fatal cases (see Prior ProMED-mail posts Novel
coronavirus - Saudi Arabia (04): RFI, Jordan, April 2012
20120925.1308001, and Novel coronavirus - Eastern Mediterranean: WHO,
Jordan, conf., RFI 20121130.1432498). - Mod.MPP]
--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[We await more information from results of epidemiologic investigations in Jordan. - Mod.MPP]
[4] Saudi Arabia: 3 new deaths, MOH
Date: Sat 1 Jun 2013
Source: Ministry of Public Health, Saudi Arabia [edited]
http://www.moh.gov.sa/en/HealthAwareness/Corona/PressReleases/Pages/MediaStatement-2013-06-01-001.aspx
Within
the framework of the epidemiological surveillance of the novel
coronavirus disease (MERS-CoV), the Ministry of Health (MOH) has
announced the deaths of 3 patients who had been previously announced to
be infected with this virus and were suffering from various chronic
diseases, including kidney failure that had afflicted 2 of them.
The
MOH has pointed out that it tested 155 samples during the past 3 days
at its laboratories, and all of them resulted negative.
--
communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[As
mentioned in the comment above, this report now raises the number of
laboratory confirmed deaths associated with MERS-CoV infection to 33,
with a global total number of cases presently at 53.
For a map showing the locations of cases in Saudi Arabia, see http://www.moh.gov.sa/en/HealthAwareness/Corona/Pages/AboutCorona.aspx.
As of 1 Jun 2013 there have been 38 confirmed cases of MERS-CoV in
Saudi Arabia, 24 of which have resulted in death. - Mod.MPP]
http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20130602.1750425
No comments:
Post a Comment