US MERS case spread disease to a contact; first onward spread in North America

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the U.S. has seen its first case of local transmission of MERS.

The CDC is reporting the first man who brought the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus to the United States infected someone he met with in Indiana.

The unidentified man is being described as a close contact of the initial case.

The CDC says the two men met on two occasions before it was realized that the initial patient was infected with MERS.

The initial case is a doctor and a U.S. citizen who lives and works in Saudi Arabia; the hospital where he works has treated MERS patients.

He developed symptoms of MERS while en route to the United States and sought medical care in Indiana, where he has relatives.

A week after the first case was reported, the U.S. detected a second imported case of MERS, in Florida. The second patient was a doctor as well; he lives and works in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, but had travelled to Orlando via London, Boston, and Atlanta.

State officials in Indiana and Florida along with the CDC have been tracing contacts of both cases to see if there has been any secondary spread of MERS in the U.S.

One of the contacts of the Florida case came to Canada, only learning after he arrived that he had been exposed to the MERS virus. The man’s health is being monitored and he has been isolating himself in his hotel room. But so far he has tested negative for MERS infection.