Mers virus spreads to US via Britain

Richard Spencer 

Public Health England was last night contacting two passengers who flew to Heathrow alongside a man diagnosed with a deadly camel-borne virus that has killed dozens in the Middle East. 

America confirmed that the first reported case within its borders of the newly emerging Middle East Respiratory Virus, or Mers, had been detected in the state of Indiana, where an American had been hospitalised after returning to the US a week ago. 

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said America’s first case of the virus involved a US citizen who worked as a health care worker in Saudi Arabia. 

The syndrome first surfaced two years ago and since then at least 400 cases of the respiratory illness have been reported, and more than 100 people have died. 

Public Health England said the man flew on British Airways Flight 262 from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to London, and transferred at Heathrow for onward travel to the US, where he was later hospitalised. 

“The risk of the infection being passed to other passengers on Flight 262 is extremely low,” the body said. “However, as a precautionary measure, Public Health England has contacted UK passengers who were sitting in the vicinity of the affected passenger to provide health information.” 

Egypt has issued a warning against travel to Saudi Arabia as the virus spreads across the region just before the pilgrimage season. 

An Egyptian man returning from Saudi Arabia became the country’s first case of diagnosed Mers. 

Saudi Arabia has millions of foreign migrant workers and millions more from the Muslim world visit each year on pilgrimage to Mecca and other holy sites. 

While the king sacked the health minister last month after criticism of the country’s speed of response to the disease, there is concern that this annual wave of visitors, often described as the world’s biggest international migration, could further spread the illness around the globe. 

Egypt’s health ministry said that it was warning children under 15 and adults over 65, pregnant women and anyone suffering from chronic heart and chest diseases to postpone their pilgrimages. 

The main Hajj season is in October this year, but many Muslims also make Umrah, the so-called “lesser pilgrimage”, at other times. 

The case of the Egyptian who fell ill was first picked up at Cairo airport. He is said to be in a stable condition in hospital, but his uncle in Saudi Arabia, from whom he is believed to have become infected, has already died. 

So far, 107 people have been killed by the condition, with at least 345 infected, according to the World Health Organisation. However, 140 of those cases have been reported since the beginning of April. 

The virus has been circulating the Middle East for at least two years. It is a coronavirus similar to Sars, the respiratory infection which caused panic in 2003, in particular in China and the Far East, where it killed more than 700 people. 

Mers causes a fever and a cough, but the effect can vary dramatically, with a high mortality rate in some people, but a majority testing positive with minor symptoms or none at all. 

Although it has been identified in bats and camels, from which it may have originated, in most of the cases identified it was passed from human to human. 

The infected person in Indiana is being kept in isolation in hospital. 

"We can break the chain of transmission in this case through focused efforts here and abroad,” said Dr Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC. / Guardian