MERS kills two more people in Saudi Arabia
Iran Press TV
Sat May 3, 2014 5:25PM GMT
Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry announces two new deaths from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), bringing the death toll to 111.
The ministry said on Saturday that a man, 25, died in the city of Jeddah and a woman, 69, died in Mecca.
Meanwhile, 35 new cases of the illness have been recorded in the kingdom, raising the number of infected people to 396 since the disease appeared in the country in September 2012.
On Friday, US health officials said the first MERS case has been recorded in the country, adding that the person is a health care provider who has travelled to Saudi Arabia for work.
Egypt also recorded its first case of the severe respiratory disease after a person who arrived from Saudi Arabia tested positive.
MERS is a cousin of SARS. The virus, which causes coughing, fever and pneumonia, does not appear to be as contagious as SARS, which killed some 800 people in a 2003 epidemic.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, MERS has been reported in Qatar, the UAE, France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, and Britain.
On April 21, Saudi Arabia dismissed Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah from his post following a worrying surge of new MERS cases in the country.
Saudi authorities have come under fire for not having been transparent about the extent of the spread of the disease and the effectiveness of preventative measures in hospitals.
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