Three people living in Saudi Arabia have been diagnosed with the contagious Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) caused by the coronavirus.

The first case was reported in the city of Rumah in Riyadh where two men aged 38 and 68 respectively have contracted the virus in the in the city of Rumah in the province of Riyadh and the governorate of Buraidah, in the province of Qassim.

According to a report in the Saudi Gazette, a  34-year-old patient has also been diagnosed with Mers, after complaining of acute respiratory illness with fever, cough, and shortness of breath.

Ministry of Health reported last week two new MERS-CoV cases, both connected to camel exposure.

A 44-year-old man from Riyadh and a 64-year-old man from Hofuf were both diagnosed as having MERS-CoV and are hospitalized for their infections. Both cases are described as primary and linked to camel contact.

Camel contact, both direct and indirect, is one of the known risk factors for MERS transmission.

The new infections appear to have raised total MERS cases to 2,254 globally since 2012, including 798 deaths.

On September 3, 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a single confirmed case of MERS CoV in a male resident who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia.

He sought medical care at a hospital in Leeds, where he was put into isolation and was transferred to the care of infectious disease specialists in Liverpool.

A South Korean man was also diagnosed with coronavirus on returning home from the Arabian Gulf region – the first case of MERS in South Korea since July 2015.

SOURCE : ALBILAD