First MERS case found in the U.S.
Patient in Indiana with new respiratory disease had traveled from Saudi Arabia
A health care worker who traveled from Saudi Arabia to the United States has contracted the MERS coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced May 2. The virus is a relative of SARS and causes respiratory infections including a severe pneumonia known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS.
The virus is inefficient at spreading among people, says Vincent Munster, a virologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in Hamilton, Mont. “The average American right now should not be too overly worried.”