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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — KCAL9 News has learned that as many as 16 people in LA County are being monitored for possible exposure to MERS. MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. The California Department of Public Health says the 16 people were all passengers on a flight with a man who is now hospitalized with the disease in Florida.

OT: VDH Monitoring "Several" Possible MERS Cases in VirginiaVirginia Department of Health officials are investigating, after "several" suspected cases of MERS appeared in Virginia. VDH is monitoring "several" Virginia citizens who were on airplanes and came into contact with people who were sick with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), according to Dr. Laurie Forlano, Deputy State Epidemiologist with the Virginia Department of Health. Although VDH officials are investigating, no cases of MERS have been confirmed in any part of the state. So far, there have been three confirmed cases of MERS within the United States: one in Orlando, Florida, one...

What is a pandemic? According to Flu.gov, a pandemic is defined as a global outbreak of disease. It’s not determined by the number of deaths, but by how quickly it spreads. Do they happen? Pandemics do happen, as in three outbreaks of flu pandemic in the 20th century: Spanish flu killed $40-50 million in 1918 Asian flu in 1957 killed 2 million people 1 million deaths from Hong Kong flu in 1968 What are the chances? I don’t have a crystal ball, and there is really no way to predict when and how a pandemic can happen. Certain “tells” would...

US Centres for Disease Control scientists study infectiousness of mild Mers casesPUBLISHED : Sunday, 18 May, 2014, 6:26am UPDATED : Sunday, 18 May, 2014, 2:42pm Highlight: "In its latest tally, Saudi Arabia’s health ministry said the total number of infections in the kingdom from the coronavirus since it first appeared in 2012 now stood at 529 people. "Among the latest fatalities were two men aged 67 and 55 and an 80-year-old woman in Jeddah, the port city where a spate of cases among staff at King Fahd Hospital last month led to the dismissal of its director and the...

Lauren F FriedmanMay 16, 2014, 1:01 PM Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), an often deadly respiratory illness that's related to the infamous SARS, first emerged in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012. (Scientists believe it jumped from camels.) But since March 2014, there's been a sharp rise in the number of cases, including two recently diagnosed MERS patients in the United States. "With more deaths in a single month than in the previous two years combined, no one is certain how people become infected," notes Marjorie P. Pollack, of ProMED-mail, and the virus has no vaccine or cure. Here's what...

Reuters) - The biggest risk that Middle East Respiratory Syndrome will become a global epidemic, ironically, may lie with globe-trotting healthcare workers. From Houston to Manila, doctors and nurses are recruited for lucrative postings in Saudi Arabia, where MERS was first identified in 2012. Because the kingdom has stepped up hiring of foreign healthcare professionals in the last few years, disease experts said, there is a good chance the MERS virus will hitch a ride on workers as they return home. "This is how MERS might spread around the world," said infectious disease expert Dr Amesh Adalja of the University...

NY Daily News: Third case of MERS confirmed in Illinois resident The unnamed resident tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome after having contact with the first patient in Indiana, who contracted the virus while traveling in Saudi Arabia. The second case was reported in Florida, but is not linked to the other two

On Tuesday morning in Florida, Orlando Health physicians and a state public health official spoke with reporters about the second MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) case at Dr. Phillips Hospital, where the patient is currently being treated. The patient with MERS initially came to Orlando Regional Medical Center to bring a relative in for testing, according to Dr. Ken Michaels, the health system’s medical director for occupational health. The care team admitted him to the hospital on May 8, when Dr. Michaels said the patient came to the emergency room at Dr. Phillips Hospital displaying possible symptoms of pneumonia. (The...

Worker who cared for Orlando MERS patient hospitalized, another sick ORLANDO -- Two Orlando health care workers who treated a 44-year-old man with MERS now have flu-like symptoms. One was admitted to the hospital, while the other was sent home. Test results are expected today to find out if they and approximately two dozen others, who had contact with the patient, have contracted the potentially deadly disease. If any results come back positive, it'll be the first time MERS is contracted in the U.S. Florida MERS Patient Sat In A Busy ER For Nearly 8 Hours Almost eight more...

...Obama has been briefed about the outbreak of the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome, the White House said Tuesday, one day after a Florida health worker became the second confirmed case...

People are taking photos and videos of themselves kissing camels in defiance of a warning from Saudi health authorities not to go near the animals, which have been linked to the deadly Mers virus. In recent days, Saudi Arabia has urged people to wear masks and gloves when dealing with camels, to stay away from raw camel meat and camel milk, and not to go near sick animals, the newspaper Gulf News reports. But some people have refused to listen to the government's advice, posting videos and sending messages in support of camels. In one video, a man stands between...

BARCELONA, Spain — A team from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) just back from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, reports that there appears to be no change in either the virulence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) or its transmissibility. The "dramatic" spike in the number of MERS-CoV cases reported in the past 3 weeks is related to a seasonal increase in primary cases, combined with a "huge spillover and amplification" of secondary cases caused by in-hospital transmission to healthcare workers and other patients, said Denis Coulombier, MD, head of the unit for surveillance and response support...

Two health workers at a hospital in Orlando, Florida, who were exposed to a patient with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) have begun showing flu-like symptoms, and one of the two has been hospitalized. Officials at the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital said on Tuesday the two healthcare workers were exposed to the patient - the second confirmed case of MERS on U.S. soil - in the emergency department before it became clear that he might be infected with the virus, which is often deadly. The second healthcare worker is being isolated in his home and watched for signs of infection.

Dr. Antonio Crespo says two hospital workers were showing flu-like symptoms after coming into contact with the 44-year-old man. One was cleared, but the other was admitted to the hospital. About 15 other workers, including two physicians, at Dr. Phillips Hospital, as well as five workers at Orlando Regional Medical Center where the Saudi resident also visited, have been asked to stay home from work for two weeks until they are cleared of having the virus.

NEW YORK (AP) - Health officials have confirmed a second U.S. case of a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East. The latest case is not an American - he is a resident of Saudi Arabia, visiting Florida, who is now in an Orlando hospital. Officials: 2nd US case of MERS reported

U.S. health officials confirmed the country’s second case of MERS, a deadly virus first discovered in the Middle East, and said the patient was in good condition in an Orlando, Florida hospital. The patient, 44, is a healthcare worker who lives and works in Saudi Arabia and traveled to the United States to visit relatives. He was admitted to the Dr. P. Phillips Hospital in Orlando on May 9. The case is the second “imported” instance of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, reaching U.S. soil. The first case was confirmed late last month in Indiana, raising fears about the...

Health officials have confirmed a second U.S. case of a mysterious virus that has sickened hundreds in the Middle East.

Extremely Deadly Virus will Come from the Muslim World By Shoebat Foundation onMay 10, 2014 inFeatured, General Exclusive by Walid Shoebat When it comes to MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) it kills nearly a third of the people it sickened. Most people still haven’t twigged to the existence of MERS but that may be changing, with new MERS infections popping up recently in Malaysia, Greece, the Philippines, Egypt, and late last week, the United States became the 16th country to detect MERS in an American who has been living and working in Saudi Arabia. Some potential explanations for the...

Saudi Arabia said people handling camels should wear masks and gloves to prevent spreading Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), issuing such a warning for the first time as cases of the potentially fatal virus neared 500 in the kingdom. Health experts say camels are the most likely animal source of infection for the disease, which the Saudi health ministry said late on Saturday that seven more people had caught. First reported two years ago in Saudi Arabia, MERS is a coronavirus like SARS, which originated in animals and killed around 800 people worldwide after first appearing in China in 2002....

Scientists are scrambling to make sense of a sharp increase in reported infections with the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus. In April alone, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have reported over 200 new cases—more than all MERS-affected countries combined in the preceding 2 years. That has sparked fresh fears that the virus may be about to go on a global rampage. The World Health Organization expressed alarm at the new numbers, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published an updated risk assessment on 25 April warning European countries to expect more imported...