Qatar Announces Its First MERS Death

In Qatar a woman has died after contracting the MERS coronavirus, reports source. This is the first recorded fatality from the SARS-like virus in the Gulf state.

The 56-year-old Qatari victim, who already had chronic illnesses, died on August 31, a week after she was admitted to intensive care at a Doha hospital, newspapers quoted the emirate's Supreme Council of Health as saying.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
SARS is a viral respiratory disease caused by SARS-associated coronavirus.

Two other cases of infection have been registered in the Gulf state, including two men, aged 59 and 29, who were hospitalised last month.

Another Qatari died of the virus in a hospital in Britain on June 28.

The virus has killed 50 people out of 108 confirmed cases of infections, the World Health Organisation said on its website on August 30. Saudi Arabia is the country worst hit by MERS.

Coronavirus MERS Kills 41 in Saudi Arabia
The government revealed that a Saudi man has died of the coronavirus MERS, bringing the kingdom's death toll from the SARS-like virus to 41, while two new cases were registered.

MERS -- Middle East Respiratory Syndrome -- is considered a cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

Like SARS, it is thought to have jumped from animals to humans, and shares the former's flu-like symptoms -- but differs by causing kidney failure.

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First MERS Coronavirus Case in Qatar
Health authorities in Qatar on Tuesday announced they have detected the first case of MERS coronavirus in the Gulf state, with a 59-year-old man infected.

According to research published last month in the American health journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, MERS was transmitted to humans from bats, but a study in the Lancet found the virus could have come from camels.

Source-AFP

Findings Suggest MERS Coronavirus Could Have an African Origin
A new study reports on the findings of researchers who have identified a virus in the feces of a South African bat that is genetically more closely related to the MERS coronavirus.