Categories: News

What Is The MERS Virus? Middle Eastern Virus Arrives In U.S.

MERS, which stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, is a coronavirus that has arrived in the United States.

What Is MERS?

The first case of MERS appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Since then, there have been more than 500 lab-confirmed cases worldwide. Of those cases, 145 resulted in death, according to Time Magazine. Thought to have originated from camels, the disease has made its way around the Arabian Peninsula – and now to the U.S.

MERS belongs in the family of viruses in which both the common cold and SARS are considered. However, so far, the virus appears to be more difficult to catch from an infected individual. Both of the confirmed cases in the U.S. were found in health care workers who had been working on cases in Saudi Arabia.

Symptoms for the virus include shortness of breath, fever and coughing. If caught early enough, it’s believed that chances of survival are good. The first person with MERS on U.S. soil had been hospitalized in Indiana and has since made a full recovery.

On Monday, it was confirmed that a second case of MERS had emerged in Florida, reported the Los Angeles Times. By Tuesday, it was revealed that two health workers at the Orlando, Fla., hospital who had been treating the infected patient were showing signs of the virus as well, reported ABC News. One has been hospitalized, while the other is in isolation at home.

The CDC has teams in Saudi Arabia, Indiana and Florida monitoring the virus. They do not believe that there’s a real danger of a MERS outbreak in the United States, and that it will likely remain primarily in the Middle East, as SARS remained primarily in China.

Chelsea Regan

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Chelsea Regan
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