
US health authorities have confirmed a second case of infection with the MERS Coronavirus involving a health worker who had just arrived in Florida from Saudi Arabia.



The Centers for Disease Control told reporters on Monday afternoon that the new MERS patient entered a Florida hospital on May 8 and was confirmed to be infected with the deadly respiratory virus on Sunday night.



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CDC Director Tom Frieden said the patient, whom he declined to identify, had traveled from Jeddah through London, Boston, Atlanta, and arrived in Orlando, Florida on May 1.



The CDC fears that the new MERS patient may have been in close contact with around 500 people throughout the journey to the United States, prompting them to alert all airlines that had the patient on board to contact their other passengers for a health check.



Frieden clarified, however, that it is not known if the MERS patient was already at an infectious stage during the course of the travel.



The Florida patient is said to have been immediately isolated by hospital personnel upon confirmation of the MERS infection.



MERS, an acronym for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, is caused by a deadly coronavirus that still has no known cure or vaccination. It is akin to the coronavirus that causes SARS, which killed more than 800 people during a global outbreak in 2003, most particularly in Hong Kong.



The first confirmed case of MERS in the United States involved a male patient from Indiana who also lived and worked in Saudi Arabia. He recovered from the illness and has been discharged from hospital last week with no further symptoms.



MERS has 538 confirmed cases worlwide, 450 of which are in Saudi Arabia which reported 188 deaths related to the disease.



Other countries that have confirmed MERS cases since it was reported in 2012 include Jordan, France, Kuwait, Italy, Oman, Malaysia, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates.




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