One case of MERS-CoV reported in Oman: WHO Report

Muscat: The World Health Organization (WHO) said that it had received a report from the Sultanate of Oman on 28 April 2022, WHO was notified of a case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), in a 34-year-old male, from Al Dhahran Governorate in Oman. The case had a history of direct contact with animals including dromedaries, sheep and goats at his family farm in Oman. The condition of the case remains critically unstable.

The report said a total of six close community and 27 health care workers has been listed as contacts and were followed for 14 days from the date of last exposure with the case. No secondly case have been reported to date.

Description of the case (WHO reports)

On 28 April 2022, the National IHR Focal point of Oman notified WHO of one case MERS-CoV from Al Dhahran Governorate in Oman.

The case, a. 24-year-old male, non-health care worker who is a resident of Al Dhahran Governorate, developed symptoms including shortness of breath, high-grade fever, and dry cough on 18 April which lasted for six days. On 24 April, he was taken to the emergency department of a hospital. Upon examination and assessment, he was found to be in sever respiratory distress, febrile, and hypotensive and diagnosed with clinical pneumonia with fluid, collection in the lungs and was admitted to the isolation ward. The condition of the patient deteriorated, and he was immediately transferred to a negative pressure isolation room, in the medical ward on the same day. On 25 April, has condition worsened, and he was then transferred to an isolation room in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and placed on mechanical ventilation. Respiratory samples were tested for several viral pathogens, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A sepsis workup including blood and urine tests was performed and tested positive for MERS-CoV by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on 27 April.

As of 8 May, the condition of the patient remains critically unstable and he continues to be mechanically ventilated in an isolation room in the ICU. The patient has no know co-morbidites. There was no history of contact with similar cases, no history of travel nor previous hospitalization. However, the patient has a history of direct contact with animals including dromedaries, sheep and goats at his family farm in Oman. 

Epidemiology of the disease (WHO reports) 

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is viral respiratory infection that is caused by a coronavirus called Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Infection with MERS-CoV can cause sever disease resulting in high mortality. Approximately 35% of patients with MERS have died, but this may be an overestimate of the true mortality rate, as mild cases of MERS-CoV may be missed by existing surveillance systems and until more is know about the disease, the case fatality rates are counted only amongst the laboratory-confirmed cases, the who report said.

to read more – https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2022-DON380