MERS Virus Kills a Pregnant Woman in UAE

A family of three from the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) was diagnosed with the SARS-like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) disease, which is caused by a virus named coronavirus. The family comprised of a 32-year-old mother who was pregnant, a father, 38, and a son aged 8.

The disease claimed the life of the mother after she gave birth to the baby by caesarean. The remaining two family members are presently stable and are being treated in hospital. The 8-year-old is presently being kept in isolation in the hospital and the new born baby is healthy and under examination.

The family started experiencing the symptoms from Nov.15, 2013 onwards, the WHO reports. How the family caught the infection is still unclear.  The family stated that they did not travel anywhere or met anybody confirmed with the virus, nor did they have any contact with animals, which the doctors believe to be the main source of infection.

The mother's death was the third due to MERS in the past two weeks, the other two deceased were from Qatar. About 163 cases of MERS-Cov have been confirmed and 70 deaths recorded. Some symptoms of the disease are SARI (severe acute respiratory infections) along with fever, coughing, shortness of breath; people suffering from these are more susceptible to death, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The disease has the ability of turning into an epidemic, the risk is higher when a large number of pilgrims travel to Mecca for Hajj every year. Scientists previously suspected animals such as camels to be a source of the disease. The researchers are still trying to find a cure for by genetically engineering a strand of the virus.