User:Kencf0618/MERS-CoV outbreak timeline

This article covers the chronology of the 2012 outbreak of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and its subsequent global spread. Flag icons denote the announcements of confirmed cases by the health organizations of the respective nation-states, and relevant sessions and announcements of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Timeline
Take note that the date of the first confirmations of the disease or any event in a country may be before or after the date of the events in local time because of the International Dateline.

2012
🇯🇴 Jordan In April six hospital workers were diagnosed with acute respiratory failure of unknown origin of whom two died. All the cases were reported to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). After the September identification of a novel CoV strain, a retroactive analysis of the hospital workers was performed, whereupon epidemiologists discovered the Jordan cases. Using stored laboratory samples for all six, it was found that samples from the two patients who had died tested positive for nCoV.

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia The first known case of a previously unknown coronavirus, was identified in a 60-year-old Saudi Arabian man with acute pneumonia who died of renal failure in June 2012.

November
🇳🇱 Netherlands Egyptian virologist Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki sends a virus sample from the first confirmed case in Saudi Arabia to virologist Ron Fouchier, a leading coronavirus researcher at the Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam.

🇬🇧United Kingdom The second laboratory-proven case is confirmed by the Health Protection Agency (HPA). which names the virus London1_novel CoV 2012.

🇺🇸United States On 8 November 2012 in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Zaki and co-authors from the Erasmus Medical Center publish more details, including a revised scientific name, Human Coronavirus-Erasmus Medical Center (HCoV-EMC), which is then used in scientific literature.

May
🇹🇳 Tunisia MERS-CoV kills one man on May 20; two of his relations are infected.

🇺🇳 United Nations The Coronavirus Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses adopts the official designation Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). which was adopted by the World Health Organization on May 23 to "provide uniformity and facilitate communication about the disease"

June
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia Officials express great concern that millions of Muslims from around the world would potentially be exposed to the virus during the autumn Hajj.

December
🇺🇳 United Nations At the WHO the Fourth Meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee concerning MERS-CoV is held on 4 December 2013. The committee decided that the conditions for a Public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) had not at present been met.

April
🇯🇴 Jordan On 24 April a 25 year-old male was found to be positive for the coronavirus. He had history of exposure to camels and had consumed camel milk.

Malaysia
On 16 April 2014, Malaysia reported its first MERS-COV related death. The person was a 54 year-old man who had traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, together with pilgrimage group composed of 18 people, from 15–28 March 2014. He became ill by 4 April, and sought remedy at a clinic in Johor on 7 April. He was hospitalized by 9 April and died on 13 April.

Indonesia
On May 11, 2014, two persons on Medan was suspected infected by MERS-Cov (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus.

Oman
On 31 October 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that one person in Oman has MERS. The WHO said "the patient in Oman is a 68-year-old man from Al Dahkliya region who became ill" on 26 October 2013.

Philippines
On 16 April 2014, an OFW who returned from Al Ain City, United Arab Emirates was found positive of the MERS-CoV at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The said person was tested for the said virus in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) but immediately travelled to Manila. Doctors from UAE later contacted Department of Health (DOH) confirming the condition of the OFW. The said OFW, who was working as a nurse in the UAE, had contact with the Filipino paramedic who had died recently in the said country. The OFW together with four of his family members who fetched him at the airport were quarantined. In a press release on 19 April, DOH announced that the OFW who was found by UAE doctors positive of MERS-CoV was found negative of the virus in an subsequent test by Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM). Explaining further with the test, Secretary Enrique Ona explained, "Since ten days had lapsed from the reported testing date at the UAE, our task force right away got in touch with him and decided to perform a test on him, and fortunately, as well for the comfort of everybody, the findings of our Research Institute for Tropical Medicine, he tested negative." In the said press release, DOH also announced that they are tracking all other 414 passengers of Etihad Airways Flight 424 (the flight the OFW took from Abu Dhabi, UAE to Manila) in order to be tested. As of 24 April, 408 passengers were already contacted, of whom 252 were already tested; out of this numbers, 221 were found to be negative. The remaining 6 passengers have yet to be contacted.

Saudi Arabia
As of 12 May 2013, two more deaths have been reported in the al-Ahsa region of Saudi Arabia. In the latest cluster of infections, 15 cases had been confirmed, and nine of those patients had died. Ten of the 22 people who died and 22 of 44 cases reported were in Saudi Arabia. An unconfirmed case in another Saudi citizen, for which no clinical information was available, was also reported around this time. On 22 September 2012, the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that the two cases involving Saudi citizens, caused by what they termed a "rare pattern of coronavirus," had both proven fatal.

Two of the Saudi Arabia cases were from the same family and from that family at least one additional person presented similar symptoms but tested negative for the novel coronavirus.

On 21 February 2013, WHO stated that there had been 13 laboratory-confirmed cases, 6 cases (4 fatal) from Saudi Arabia, 2 cases (both fatal) from Jordan, 2 cases from Qatar, and 3 from the UK.

In March 2013, the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health reported the death of a 39-year-old man, the 15th case and 9th death reported to WHO. On 2 May 2013, the Saudi Ministry of Health announced five people died and two other people were in critical condition with confirmed cases of a SARS-like virus. The delays in obtaining data and absence of basic information (which would usefully include: sex, age, other medical conditions and smoking status) have been noted and decried by Dr. Margaret Chan and in Pro-Med comments on numerous briefings. At the annual meeting of the world’s health ministers, Dr. Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said the virus was now her “greatest concern.”

On 28 May 2013, the Saudi Ministry of Health reported five more cases of MERS-CoV. The cases have been "recorded among citizens in the Eastern Region, ranging in age from 73 to 85 years, but they have all chronic diseases." With this announcement, the unofficial global case count reached 49 while the death toll stands at 24 according to the CDC. As of 26 June 34 deaths have been recorded in the kingdom.

On 1 August 2013, the World Health Organization announced three new MERS-CoV cases in that Saudi Arabia, all of them in women, two of whom were healthcare workers. "With the three new cases, Saudi Arabia's posted MERS tally increases to 74 cases with 39 deaths. The cases raise the WHO's MERS count to 94 cases and 46 deaths."

On 31 October 2013, the WHO announced that three paitents in Saudi Arabia died of MERS. The patients were one woman and two men and "all had underlying medical conditions but all reported having had no contact with animals before falling ill".

Early of 23 April 2014, 11 new cases including a first case for Mecca were reported by the Health Ministry. Additional 13 cases were reported on the same day. With the additional reported cases, there are now a total of 285 cases with 83 deaths in the Kingdom.

Hajj
Due to fears of the MERS virus, attendance in the hajj in 2013 was lower than the previous year. The Saudi government asked "elderly and chronically ill Muslims to avoid the hajj this year" and restricted the number of people allowed "to perform the pilgrimage".

Saudi Health Minister Abdullah Al-Rabia said "that authorities had so far detected no cases among the pilgrims" of MERS. However, the Spanish government, in November 2013, reported a woman in Spain, who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Islamic pilgrimage, contracted the disease.

United Arab Emirates
On 14 April 2014, one Filipino paramedic died in the United Arab Emirates, with six other reported to be infected with the virus. On 17 April, the UAE Ministry of Health reported another fatality and four additional cases, including the Filipino medical worker who travelled to the Philippines on 16 April.

On 21 April, the Health Ministry of UAE reported an additional of 9 cases.

France
On 7 May 2013, a case was confirmed in Nord departement of France in a man who had previously traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

On 12 May 2013, in a case of human to human transmission, a man previously hospitalized in the same room as the first patient was confirmed by French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

France reported its first death from MERS near the end of May 2013. On 28 May 2013, a report by the Associated Press said a French patient died of the novel coronavirus related to SARS. Fifty percent of those infected have died.

Greece
On 20 April, Greece reported its first MERS-CoV case. The infected individual was a 69 Greek male who had returned to Greece on April 17 from Saudi Arabia. People with close contact with the infected man were identified and are being followed up.

Italy
On 31 May 2013, the Italian health ministry announced its first case of MERS-CoV in a 45-year-old man who had traveled to Jordan. The patient is being currently treated in a hospital in Tuscany and his condition was reported as not life threatening.

Spain
On 1 November 2013, a woman who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj, contracted the disease. She is stated to be in stable condition and investigators from the World Health Organization, are investigating whom she came in contact with.

United Kingdom
In February 2013, the first UK case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed in Manchester in an elderly man who had recently visited the Middle East and Pakistan; it was the 10th case globally. The man's son, whom he visited in the hospital in Birmingham, was immuno-suppressed because of a brain tumour, and contracted the virus, providing the first clear evidence for person-to-person transmission. He died on 19 February 2013.

The second patient was a 49-year-old Qatari man who had visited Saudi Arabia before falling ill. He was flown privately by air ambulance from Doha to London on 11 September where he was admitted to St Mary's Hospital and later was transferred to St Thomas's Hospital. As a result of Dr Zaki's post on Pro-MED, the novel coronavirus was quickly identified. He was treated for respiratory disease and, like the first patient in Saudi Arabia, died of renal failure in October 2012.

Another patient who had been in Guys and St Thomas hospital in the UK since September 2012 after visiting the Middle East died on 28 June 2013. "Guys and St Thomas can confirm that the patient with severe respiratory illness due to novel coronavirus (MERS-COV) sadly died on Friday 28 June, after his condition deteriorated despite every effort and full supportive treatment" Spokesman of Guys and St Thomas.

As of April 2014, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported a total of 4 cases in the United Kingdom, 3 of whom were fatalities.

United States
On 2 May 2014, the United States Centers for Disease Control confirmed the first diagnosis of MERS-CoV in the United States in Indiana. The man diagnosed was a healthcare worker who had been in Saudi Arabia a week earlier, and was reported to be in good condition. Another case, a Florida man from the Orlando area, has been reported, and a third Illinois man is as yet asymptomatic but has tested positive for a past infection with the healthcare worker from Indiana. The latter case is the first human-to-human transmission in the United States.