WHO confirms four more cases of Middle East virus

Three more people in Saudi Arabia have become infected with the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus and one has died, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday, and it also confirmed the first MERS case in Oman. In a disease outbreak update, the Geneva-based United Nations health agency said the four new cases bring the number of people worldwide struck by the MERS virus to 149, of which 63 have died. Health authorities and scientists are still trying to figure out what kind of animal "reservoir" may be fuelling the MERS outbreak. The virus, which is from the same family as the one that caused a deadly outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS in 2002, is thought to have originated in bats.



via Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/confirms-four-more-cases-middle-east-virus-173716803.html