Qatari patient dies from MERS-CoV at London’s St Thomas’ Hospital, brings global death count to 43
A patient from the Arab state of Qatar, who was being treated for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) at a London hospital, has died from the infection, according to a Public Health England tweet today.
According to an IB Times.UK report today, the 49-year-old man was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital in London and was treated in intensive care. He died after his condition deteriorated.
The victim had been suffering from Mers-CoV and renal failure and last September was admitted to hospital in Qatar, where he stayed several months before being transferred to London for treatment.
This MERS fatality follows the two deaths in Saudi Arabia reported earlier this week, bringing the global total of deaths to 43.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Coronaviruses are a cause of the common cold. A coronavirus also was the cause of the severe respiratory illness called SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). SARS caused a global epidemic in 2003, but there have not been any known cases of SARS since 2004. MERS-CoV is not the same coronavirus that caused SARS.
MERS-CoV is different from any other coronavirus that has been previously found in people. Symptoms of MERS have included fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has received reports of laboratory-confirmed cases originating in the following countries in the Middle East to date: Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and the United Kingdom also reported laboratory-confirmed cases; they were either transferred there for care of the disease or returned from the Middle East and subsequently became ill.
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