Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infections in Health Care Workers

MERS coronavirus has recently emerged as a pathogen causing severe infection in humans. In a report from Saudi Arabia, mild infection in health care workers caring for infected patients is identified through a screening program. Implications for infection control are discussed. To the Editor: A majority of the 94 cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection that have been reported to date have occurred in Saudi Arabia. Patients with this infection have presented with serious respiratory disease and have required hospitalization.(1),(2) However, there have been case reports of less severe disease within family(3),(4) and hospital(2) clusters, and the clinical spectrum of MERS-CoV infections may extend to asymptomatic and subclinical cases. Therefore, the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of this infection need further definition. The patterns of the spread of MERs-CoV among family(3),(4) or hospital(2) clusters suggest that ...