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 Two of the patients died, six have recovered, while
three are undergoing treatment, the official Saudi Press Agency
reported quoting the Jeddah health authority.
The emergency department of King Fahd hospital in Jeddah was closed
for disinfection after one health worker there tested positive for
the virus and subsequent tests on other staff members showed further
infections.
Some patients were transferred to other hospitals while the
disinfection was carried out, the health authority said.
A nurse at King Abdel Aziz hospital had earlier tested positive for
the virus but no other workers in that hospital were infected.
The health authority assured the public that no other hospitals in
Jeddah had recorded any cases and denied rumors that more than two
deaths had occurred.
MERS emerged in the Middle East in 2012 and is from the same family
as the SARS virus. It can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia.
Although the worldwide number of MERS infections is fairly small,
the more than 40 percent death rate among confirmed cases and the
spread of the virus beyond the Middle East is keeping scientists and
public health officials on alert.
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Cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan,
United Arab Emirates, Oman and Tunisia as well as in several
countries in Europe, and scientists are increasingly focused on a
link between the human infections and camels as a possible "animal
reservoir" of the virus.
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan; editing by Alison Williams)
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