Pregnant woman with MERS gives birth by emergency C-section; baby well

The World Health Organization says a man, his pregnant wife and their eight-year-old son have tested positive for MERS in the United Arab Emirates.

The woman, who was eight months pregnant, gave birth by emergency C-section.

The WHO says the infant is a boy and is doing well.

This is the first known case of a pregnant woman contracting MERS.

The woman and her husband are both in critical condition in hospital; the eight-year old son appears to have a milder case of the infection.

The WHO also announced today that the experts who advise it on MERS, the so-called emergency committee, will meet again this Wednesday.

Dr. Theresa Tam of the Public Health Agency of Canada is a member of the emergency committee.

The group, which has met three times previously, wanted to reconvene after the annual Hajj to assess the state of the outbreak.

The Hajj draws several million religious tourists to the holy sites of Saudi Arabia, which has had more MERS cases than any of the other affected countries. There had been serious concerns this year’s Hajj might result in spread of the virus to other parts of the world.

But so far only two Hajj pilgrims — women from Spain who travelled together — have tested positive for the virus. And at the moment both those cases are designated probable, because tests done by Spanish laboratories have only met part of the WHO’s criteria for a confirmed case.

The WHO says with the new cases in the UAE there have now been 163 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS infection, including 70 deaths.

The latest cases are members of a large extended family from Jordan who were residents of the UAE. News reports from Abu Dhabi said the couple had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia, suggesting UAE health officials have speculated they may have been infected there.

But the WHO says it was not informed of any recent travel by the couple. As well, it says the family had no recent contact with animals.