Saudi Arabia reports MERS case in Riyadh woman
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health (MOH) today announced that a 56-year-old Saudi woman in Riyadh is sick with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
The woman has chronic diseases and is being treated in an intensive care unit, the MOH said. It gave no other information on her condition or her possible exposures to the virus.
The case raises Saudi Arabia's MERS tally to 148 cases, including 61 deaths. The country accounts for most of the world's cases.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has not yet announced the latest case or the three previous cases reported by Saudi Arabia, which involved a 58-yeer-old Al-Ahsa man, an 81-year-old Riyadh woman who died, and a 22-year-old man in the Eastern province who died.
The WHO's latest global MERS case count, not updated since Feb 7, is 182 cases with 79 deaths. The count currently listed on the FluTrackers infectious disease message board is 187 cases.
Feb 26 Saudi MOH notice
Saudi MOH MERS-CoV page with case count
FluTrackers MERS-CoV case list
Feb 7 WHO update on MERS-Cov
Six kidnapped polio workers in Pakistan released
A six-member polio immunization team that was kidnapped 2 days ago in southwestern Pakistan was released by its captors today, but a separate six-member team kidnapped in northern Pakistan last week has not been released, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported today.
A polio worker, his driver, and four tribal police guards were abducted Feb 24 after administering polio vaccine in Awaran, a town in Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
"The vaccination team members, who had been snatched on gunpoint by over a dozen armed men Monday evening, returned to Awaran town Wednesday morning," a local police official told AFP.
He said the kidnapped polio workers were released after local tribal elders intervened. The kidnappers were not apprehended, and no group has claimed responsibility. But some militant groups oppose polio vaccination programs, saying they are a cover for espionage and a plot against Muslim children.
More than 40 polio vaccination workers and their guards have been killed in Pakistan since December 2012, the report said.
Gunmen kidnapped a separate six-member polio vaccination team southwest of Peshawar last week, and their whereabouts are unknown, AFP reported.
Feb 26 AFP story
In other polio news, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that the First Islamic Advisory Group (IAG) and Executive Board is meeting yesterday through Feb 28 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on polio issues.
"The main objective of the IAG is to provide high-level global leadership and guidance to build ownership, solidarity and support for polio eradication across the Muslim world," the WHO said in a statement.
WHO meeting statement
Saudi MOH MERS-CoV page with case count
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