Sunday 15 June 2014

*POSSIBLY NOT* Country #22 to have been paid a visit by the MERS-CoV: Bangladesh [UPDATED x2]

Looking like this result could not be confirmed 
by external testing.
June 20th 


The case, a 53-year old male (53M) returned to Dhaka, Bangladesh on 4-June from New York (the United States of America), via Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates). He became symptomatic on 6-June and was hospitalized 9-June.

Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Prof. Mahmudur Rahman, speculated that 53M was likely to have contacted MERS-CoV in the UAE. It's not clear whether he transited through the Abu Dhabi airport (apparently he was at the airport for 3-hours, h/t @influenza_bio; seems like a very unlucky acquisition then[4]), or stayed there for some time. 
It's also not clear how long he stayed the the USA for. The WHO have been informed, according to reports.

A 2-day incubation period is a bit on the short side for MERS-CoV though. Eagerly awaiting the WHO DON on this case.

[UPDATE] It looks like this sample could not be repeated. If I read any further announcements I'll post them here buit for now it appears that the two samples may have been false positive results. How that could happen I'm really not able to imagine. But we'd need to know more about the testing to answer that.

Sources...

  1. FluTrackers thread
    http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=537546#post537546
  2. Treyfish's H5N1 pandemic information news blog
    http://swineflumagazine.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/more-on-bangladesh.html
  3. The Daily Star
    http://www.thedailystar.net/mers-detected-first-time-in-bangladesh-28635
  4. Channel NewsAsia
    http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/health/bangladesh-reports-first/1162024.html

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