South Korea Reports Sixth Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Virus Death, 87 Infections, 2300 Quarantined

South Korea recorded its sixth death and biggest single day jump in Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) infections on Monday, with 23 new cases in the largest outbreak of the potentially deadly virus outside Saudi Arabia.

From just four cases two weeks ago, the total number of infections now stands at 87, including six people who have died.

The latest fatality was a man in his 80s who had been diagnosed in Daejeon, 140 kilometres south of Seoul, and died in hospital on Monday morning, local officials said.

The outbreak has triggered widespread public concern in South Korea, with 2,300 people placed under quarantine orders and nearly 1,900 schools -- mostly in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi province -- closed down.

Among the 23 new cases, 17 were infected at the Samsung Medical Centre in southern Seoul, the health ministry said.

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MERS Outbreak in Korea Climbs to 35 Infected, 2 Deaths

Hundreds more schools closed on Thursday in South Korea as officials struggled to ease growing panic over an outbreak of the MERS virus that has infected 35 people, killed two and caused thousands to cancel travel plans.

More than 700 schools -- from kindergartens to colleges -- have now shut their gates in response to public fears over what has become the largest outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outside Saudi Arabia.

Five more cases were confirmed on Thursday, bringing the total number of known infections to 35, the health ministry said.

The first case -- reported on May 20 -- was of a 68-year-old man diagnosed after a trip to Saudi Arabia.

Since then, more than 1,300 people who may have been exposed directly or indirectly to the virus have been placed under varying levels of quarantine.

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Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is Back

Infectious disease watchers are again wondering what is going on in Saudi Arabia. Since the beginning of February the Saudis have reported 52 cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome—better known as MERS; 40 have come to light in the past week or so alone. Since the disease first hit the world’s radar in September 2012 only two months have racked up more cases than this one has. They were April and May 2014, when Saudi Arabia had rampant MERS outbreaks in several hospitals.

An expert delegation from the United Nation’s human and animal health agencies began a three-day mission to the Arabian Peninsula’s geographically largest country Wednesday, trying to get to the bottom of why MERS cases are soaring.

This is the time of year in which the number of MERS cases has climbed in the past, although not enough time has elapsed to make clear whether that pattern will continue. In the past two springs large hospital outbreaks in Saudi Arabia have certainly created the appearance of a high season for MERS transmission, which some scientists believe exists and is linked to the birth and weaning of young camels. The animals are known to be susceptible to the virus and can transmit it to people. Like young children who infect the adults around them with colds and flu, juvenile camels are thought to drive the spread of this virus among camel herds and out into the human population. Then someone becomes sick enough to require hospitalization and the infection spreads.

But even if there is a seasonal component to MERS, a spring surge has never before started this early in the year. By comparison, in the past two Februaries fewer than 10 cases were reported. "Of course we don't have 10, 20 years’ history to be able to predict any seasonal patterns,’’ says Peter Ben Embarek, a food safety expert who is the World Health Organization’s point person for MERS. “But just based on the last couple of years, the couple of seasons we've come through, it's not a good start."

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Opportunity's Incredible View

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Middle East Respiratory Syndrome may be Airborne

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, better known as MERS, may be an airborne virus, according to an observation paper published Tuesday in the journal mBio.

There have been 836 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection since its first appearance in 2012, according to the latest numbers provided by the World Health Organization. At least 288 related deaths have officially been reported to the WHO.

Scientists are still trying to figure out how the deadly virus is transmitted.

Researchers from King Fahd Medical Research Center in Saudi Arabia collected three air samples from a camel barn. Previously, they had found MERS in a camel from that barn and in its infected owner, who later died from the condition. After analyzing the air sample, the scientists found one strain of MERS RNA, the viral genome.

Interestingly, the barn air tested positive for MERS on the exact same day that one of the nine camels in the barn tested positive for MERS. Also, the virus from the air sample was identical to the virus found in nasal samples from the infected camel and its owner.

"These data show evidence for the presence of the airborne MERS in the same barn that was owned by the patient and sheltered the infected camels," the study authors write.

But does that mean MERS is easily transmitted through the air?

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At least 288 have died and 834 people have been infected with the MERS virus.

First MERS Case Reported From Bangladesh

Bangladesh on Sunday reported its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus infection in a man returning from the United States through Abu Dhabi.

The man, 53, was being treated in hospital, said Mahmudur Rahman, of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research.

"Most probably, he contacted the virus while he was in Abu Dhabi in transit on his way back from the United States," Rahman told Reuters.

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Saudi Arabia's Response to MERS Inhibited by Institutional Problems

When Saudi Arabia announced last week it had found 113 more cases of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), it didn't just force a rethink of the threat the virus poses, it exposed institutional failings.

Saudi health sources and international virologists said poor communication and a lack of accountability in government departments, inadequate state oversight and a failure to learn from past mistakes have all hindered Saudi Arabia's battle against the SARS-like virus.

They say it is too soon to tell if reforms introduced by a new acting health minister can overcome what they see as underlying problems.

Some top Saudi health officials say they accept that delays in reporting MERS cases were caused by poor communication between hospitals, laboratories and government departments, but they stress things have improved significantly since the appointment of the new minister in late April.

The health ministry "has put in place measures to ensure best practices of data gathering, reporting (and) transparency are strictly observed", it says, and "to ensure that from now on, case information will be accurate, reliable and timely".

Saudi Arabia has been host to the vast majority of cases of MERS - a viral infection which can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia - since it was first found in humans two years ago.

International concerns over Saudi Arabia's handling of the outbreak grew last week when it said it had under-reported cases by a fifth and revised the case numbers to 688 from 575.

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Saudi Arabia's MERS Death Toll Really 282, not 190

Saudi Arabia's death toll from the MERS coronavirus has surged to 282, the health ministry said Tuesday, following recalculations in the world's worst hit country.

"A comprehensive revision" going back to 2012 has resulted in revising up the death toll, which had stood at 190 people, while the number of infected cases rose from 575 to 688 people, the ministry said in a statement.

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MERS Spreads to Algeria

Algeria reported its first two cases of the deadly MERS virus on Saturday, both among pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia, where most cases and deaths from the disease have been reported.

The two Algerian men, aged 66 and 59, had gone on a pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, Algeria's health ministry said without giving further details about their condition.

Other countries including Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and the United States have also recorded cases, mostly in people who had been to Saudi Arabia.

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The Saudi death toll is now 189.  Jordan reports 6.

 It seems some of those who went on the pilgrimage to Mecca, etc. are returning with MERS.

MERS Infections Slow in Saudi Arabia, Iran Reports First Infections

The rate of infection of a deadly virus in Saudi Arabia has slowed since mid May and Monday was the first day free of new cases in six weeks, figures released by the kingdom's Health Ministry showed.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was discovered in Saudi Arabia two years ago and has since infected 562 people in the kingdom, killing 179 of them. It can cause flu-like symptoms, pneumonia and organ failure in some.

A surge in new cases in April prompted King Abdullah to sack the health minister and led to criticism of infection control procedures in many Saudi hospitals. There were also concerns the government was not taking seriously MERS's link to camels.

Cases have also been discovered in other countries, including the United States, Britain and France and, most recently, in Iran. Most of these cases are linked to people who have recently visited Gulf Arab countries.

In the first two weeks of the month, the daily number of new cases in Saudi Arabia averaged nearly 11, but since May 14 the average number of new confirmed infections has been a little over four a day, the figures show.

Late on Monday the ministry reported its first day free of new confirmed infections since April 13.

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Iran also reports cases.

Saudi MERS Deaths at 173, Infections at 537

Saudi health authorities reported Monday new deaths from the MERS coronavirus, taking to 173 the overall number of fatalities from the disease in the world's worst-hit country.

The health ministry said on its website that five people have died, including a 28-year-old woman in the port city of Jeddah, and a 32-year-old man in northern Tabuk.

A woman aged 69 died in Riyadh and a 55-year-old man died in the city of Mecca, home to Islam's holiest site which is visited by millions of pilgrims each year.

A fifth man, 59 died on Sunday in the western city of Taif.

The ministry said the total numbers of infections has reached 537 case.

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Middle East Respiratory Virus has Infected at Least One Other in USA

Health officials reported Saturday what appears to be the first time that a mysterious Middle East virus has spread from one person to another in the United States.

The Illinois man probably picked up an infection from an Indiana man who earlier this month became the first U.S. case of Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS. The Illinois man, however, never needed medical treatment and is reported to be feeling well, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The two men met twice before the Indiana man fell ill and was hospitalized in Munster, Indiana, shortly after traveling from Saudi Arabia, where he lived and was employed as a health care worker. Health officials say they think the virus spread during a 40-minute business meeting that involved no more contact than a handshake.

"We don't think this changes the risk to the general public," which remains low, said Dr. David Swerdlow of the CDC.

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Saudi Deaths From MERS up to 157; Total Saudi Infections now at 511

Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday five new deaths from MERS, raising the death toll in the country worst-hit by the mysterious coronavirus to 157 since it appeared in 2012.

The health ministry also reported 16 new infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome raising the total so far to 511.

Three women, all over 60, died in Riyadh, while two men, aged 56 and 57, died in the port city of Jeddah, the ministry said on its website.

Saudi Arabia accounts for by far the largest proportion of the 571 MERS cases worldwide reported to the World Health Organisation, 171 of which have proved fatal.

MERS has also been found in 16 other countries but nearly all have among people from, or who had recently travelled to, the Gulf.

Research has identified camels as the likely original source of the virus and the Saudi agriculture ministry on Sunday urged camel handlers to wear masks and gloves.

But a growing number of infections have been among health workers or fellow patients in hospitals treating MERS cases and the WHO called on Wednesday for improved infection control.

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Two Florida Health Workers may Have MERS; Saudi Arabia Raises Death Count to 152

Two health workers at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, who were exposed to a patient with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome have begun showing flu-like symptoms, and one of the two has been hospitalized.

Officials at the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital said on Tuesday the two healthcare workers were exposed to the patient - the second confirmed case of MERS on U.S. soil - in the emergency department before it became clear that he might be infected with the virus, which is often deadly.

The second healthcare worker is being isolated in his home and watched for signs of infection.

Hospital and local health officials said at a press conference that the MERS patient, also a healthcare worker, had made a visit last week to the Orlando Regional Medical Center to accompany another person who was having a medical procedure. The MERS patient was symptomatic at the time, but did not seek treatment.

Five healthcare workers from the regional medical center and another 15 from the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital are being tested for MERS, including the two patients who have developed symptoms.

Hospital officials said they are awaiting test results to determine whether any of the exposed hospital workers have MERS.

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Saudi health authorities announced Tuesday five new deaths from MERS, raising the total death toll in the country worst-hit by the mysterious coronavirus to 152 since it appeared in 2012.

Meanwhile, four new infections by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome have been registered, raising the total of cases to 495, the health ministry said.

The ministry added that six patients who had been infected by the SARS-like virus have been cured.

The new deaths occurred on Monday, with one patient dying in Riyadh and the remaining four in the commercial capital Jeddah.

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2nd Case of MERS in the US; Saudis Report 142 Dead

There is a second confirmed case of MERS imported into the United States, the CDC announced Monday.

Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Florida Department of Health are investigating.

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Three more people have died from the MERS coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, the health ministry said Sunday, taking the number of fatalities from the disease in the kingdom to 142.

The Middle East Respiratory System coronavirus has now infected 483 people in the Gulf nation since it first appeared in 2012, accounting for the vast majority of the 496 cases registered worldwide.

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MIddle East Respiratory Syndrome Leaps to America

Health officials on Friday confirmed the first case of an American infected with a mysterious Middle East virus. The man fell ill after arriving in the U.S. last week from Saudi Arabia where he was a health care worker.

The man is hospitalized in stable condition in northwest Indiana with Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is investigating the case along with Indiana health officials.

The virus is not highly contagious and this case "represents a very low risk to the broader, general public," Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters during a CDC briefing.

The federal agency plans to track down passengers he may have been in close contact with during his travels; it was not clear how many people may have been exposed to the virus.

Officials didn't provide any details about the man's job in Saudi Arabia or whether he was treating MERS patients there. Saudi Arabia has been the center of a MERS outbreak that began two years ago, and infections have been reported in health care workers.

Overall, at least 400 people have had the respiratory illness, and more than 100 people have died. All had ties to the Middle East or to people who traveled there.

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Is Middle East Repiratory Syndrome (MERS) About to Become an Epidemic?

Saudi Arabia confirmed 26 more cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has killed nearly a third of sufferers, and said 10 more people have died from the disease.

The confirmations follow Egypt's announcement on Saturday that it had confirmed its first case of MERS in a man who had recently returned to the country from Riyadh, where he was working.

Saudi Arabia, where MERS was discovered around two years ago and which remains the country most affected, has now had 339 confirmed cases of MERS, of which 102 have been fatal.

The 143 cases announced since the start of April represent a 73 percent jump in total infections in Saudi Arabia this month.

The new cases were announced in two statements published on the Health Ministry website on Saturday and Sunday.

The 10 confirmed on Saturday included seven in Jeddah, the focal point for the recent outbreak, two in the capital Riyadh and another in Mecca. Two MERS patients died.

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Mars' Gusev Crater Definitely had a Lake

If desert mirages occur on Mars, "Lake Gusev" belongs among them. This come-and-go body of ancient water has come and gone more than once, at least in the eyes of Mars scientists.

Now, however, it's finally shifting into sharper focus, thanks to a new analysis of old data by a team led by Steve Ruff, associate research professor at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. The team's report was just published in the April 2014 issue of the journal Geology.

The story begins in early 2004, when NASA landed Spirit, one of its two Mars Exploration Rovers, inside 100-mile-wide Gusev Crater. Why Gusev? Because from orbit, Gusev looked, with its southern rim breached by a meandering river channel, as if it once held a lake – and water-deposited rocks were the rover mission's focus. Yet when Spirit began to explore, scientists found Gusev's floor was paved not with lakebed sediments, but volcanic rocks.

Less than two miles away however stood the Columbia Hills, 300 feet high. When Spirit drove up into them, it indeed discovered ancient rocks that had been altered by water. But to scientists' chagrin, no lake sediments were among them. Instead, scientists discovered evidence of hydrothermal activity, essentially hot springs like those in Yellowstone National Park.

But there's hope yet for Lake Gusev, thanks to a Columbia Hills rock outcrop dubbed Comanche. This outcrop is unusually rich in magnesium-iron carbonate minerals, a discovery made in 2010 that Ruff played a major role in making. While Comanche's carbonate minerals were originally attributed to hydrothermal activity, the team's new analysis points to a different origin.

Cool waters

Says Ruff, "We looked more closely at the composition and geologic setting of Comanche and nearby outcrops. There's good evidence that low temperature surface waters introduced the carbonates into Comanche rather than hot water rising from deep down."

Comanche started out as a volcanic ash deposit known as tephra that originally covered the Columbia Hills and adjacent plains. This material, Ruff explains, came from explosive eruptions somewhere within or around Gusev.

Then floodwaters entered the crater through the huge valley that breaches Gusev's southern rim. These floods appear to have ponded long enough to alter the tephra, producing briny solutions. When the brines evaporated, they left behind residues of carbonate minerals. As the lake filled and dried, perhaps many times in succession, it loaded Comanche and its neighbor rocks with carbonates.

"The lake didn't have to be big," Ruff explains. "The Columbia Hills stand 300 feet high, but they're in the lowest part of Gusev. So a deep, crater-spanning lake wasn't needed."

Today, the Columbia Hills rise as an island of older terrain surrounded by younger lava flows, Ruff says. "Comanche and a neighbor outcrop called Algonquin are remnants of the older and much more widespread tephra deposit. The wind has eroded most of that deposit, also carrying away much of the evidence for an ancient lake."

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Mars' Gusev Crater had an Ephemeral Lake During the Noachian Age

Evidence for a Noachian-aged ephemeral lake in Gusev crater, Mars

Authors:

Ruff et al

Abstract:

Gusev crater has long been considered the site of a lake early in Martian history, but the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit found no apparent evidence of lake deposits along its 7 km traverse from 2004 to 2010. Although outcrops rich in Mg-Fe carbonate, dubbed Comanche, were discovered in the Noachian-aged Columbia Hills, they were inferred to result from volcanic hydrothermal activity. We now find evidence that the alteration of the Comanche outcrops is consistent with evaporative precipitation of low-temperature, near-surface solutions derived from limited water-rock interaction with rocks equivalent to nearby outcrops called Algonquin. Additional observations show that the Algonquin outcrops are remnants of volcanic tephra that covered the Columbia Hills and adjacent plains well before emplacement of basalt flows onto the floor of Gusev crater. Water-limited leaching of formerly widespread Algonquin-like tephra deposits by ephemeral waters, followed by transport and evaporative precipitation of the fluids into the Comanche outcrops, can explain their chemical, mineralogical, and textural characteristics.

Maybe Martian "Blueberries" Aren't...Martian?

Possible mechanism for explaining the origin and size distribution of Martian hematite spherules

Authors:

Misra et al

Abstract:

Mysterious hematite spherules, also known as "blueberries", observed at Meridiani Planum on Mars have been widely accepted as concretions which formed by precipitation of aqueous fluids. One of the biggest mysteries is that all observed Martian blueberries are limited in size with maximum diameter of 6.2 mm. In contrast, terrestrial concretions are not size limited. In this article, we discuss significant differences between Martian blueberries and Earth concretion analogues. Puzzling observations from Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit suggest that the spherules may not be concretions but are cosmic spherules formed by ablation of meteorites. The perfect spherical shape of spherules, their observed size limit, and all other physical properties are easily explained by meteorite ablation model. Evidence that some of these spherules are only few years old strongly constrains concretion and other growth mechanisms related to aqueous processes that require the existence of water on Mars in its recent history. The large number of hematite spherules in Meridiani Planum may be due to a big rare iron meteorite impact event in this region sometime in the past.