NewsDesk @bactiman63

Just days after the World Health Organization (WHO) reported two Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases in Qatar, they now report on a case in Oman in the Arabian Peninsula.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
Image/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

According to the release, 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 Dhahira Governorate in Oman. The case had a history of direct contact with animals including dromedaries, sheep and goats at his family farm in Oman.

More details on the case include:

The individual is a non-health care worker who 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 severe 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, his condition worsened, and he was then transferred to an isolation room in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and placed on mechanical ventilation. 

Medical books

WHO reports 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 known co-morbidities.

Cases of MERS-CoV infection are rare in Oman. Since June 2013, a total of 25 MERS-CoV cases, including the current case, and seven deaths, have been reported to WHO from Oman.

As of 15 May 2022, the total number of laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV infection cases reported globally to WHO is 2591 including 894 associated deaths. The majority of the reported cases have occurred in countries in the Arabian Peninsula.