April 13, 2014 3:36 AM
Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) - A
foreigner has died from MERS while eight people including five health
workers have been infected in the Saudi city of Jeddah, where the spread
of the coronavirus among medics has sparked panic.
The death of
the 45-year-old man, whose nationality has not been disclosed, brings
the nationwide toll in the world's most-affected country to 68.
The
health ministry late Saturday announced the death of the man and said
five health workers -- two women and three men -- and three other people
had been infected by the virus in Jeddah.
The
announcement came days after panic over the spread of the virus among
medical staff led to the closure of the emergency room at the city's
main public hospital.
Health minister Abdullah al-Rabiah visited hospitals in Jeddah on Saturday in a bid to calm residents.
The
total cases of infection by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, which
first appeared in the kingdom in September 2012, has hit 189, the
ministry said.
The virus was initially concentrated in the eastern region but has now spread across more areas.
The
World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday that it had been told of
212 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection worldwide, of which 88
have proved fatal.
The MERS
virus is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS
virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine
percent of whom died.
Experts are still struggling to understand MERS, for which there is no known vaccine.
A
study has said the virus has been "extraordinarily common" in camels
for at least 20 years, and may have been passed directly from the
animals to humans.
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