Seven New Cases of MERS Emerge in Saudi Arabia – Health Ministry

Seven more people in Saudi Arabia came down with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bringing the overall number of the infected to 1122, the country’s Health Ministry said Friday.

DUBAI (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, an 86-year-old resident of Riyadh died due to the MERS coronavirus.

A woman wearing a mask walks past an information banner on Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) at the entrance of Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute at a hospital in Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, June 19, 2015

© REUTERS / Chaiwat Subprasom

Since the disease was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, it claimed lives of 481 individuals, the Saudi Arabian ministry stated.

South Korea has recently seen the worst MERS pandemic outside the country of origin. The MERS death toll there has risen to 36, according to the country's health authorities.

The MERS viral respiratory disease is introduced from camels to people, with limited human-to-human transmission, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

There is currently no vaccine for MERS that carries a very high fatality rate of about 36 percent worldwide.