New Cases of MERS Virus Found in Saudi Arabian Cities: 285 Documented

The Saudi Arabian Health Ministry reported new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in the country's capital of Riyadh as well as the cities of Jiddah, Mecca, and Medina, resulting in four deaths in the past few days.

Since the discovery of MERS, 285 people have been infected and 83 have died in Saudi Arabia alone, and the recent outbreak put the health ministry as well as other officials under pressure for handling it poorly. The country dismissed their health minister Abdullah al-Rabiah earlier this week and now Labour Minister Adel Fakieh has taken over the position.

After the mishaps this week, Fakieh promised "transparency and to promptly provide the media and society with the information needed" on MERS because international health officials complained that al-Rabiah was not releasing any information regarding the virus and its potential mutation based on the recent cases, Time Magazine reports.

Health officials are concerned over the timeliness of the outbreak because later this year millions of Muslims will be traveling to Mecca for Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage that is the largest gathering of Muslim people in the world. And the symptoms of MERS aren't very serious: fever, cough, and shortness of breath. These common symptoms would most likely not prevent someone from participating in the largest annual Muslim gathering, which could further spread the disease in an unprecedented manner.

There are already more confirmed cases this year in Saudi Arabia than in all of 2013. Researchers and medical experts believe that the virus could be mutating, which would explain the spike in cases. Due to the immediate nature MERS outbreak, Saudi officials contacted the World Health Organization and other medical experts to set up a meeting within the next week to discuss the status of MERS as well as any possible vaccines that can be developed to prevent its spread.

Many of those infected in the past week were health care workers, and four doctors at one of Saudi Arabia's five King Fahd Hospitals after refusing to treat MERS patients. On top of health care workers/experts not understanding MERS, they're also becoming infected and wary of treating patients. Hopefully the meeting with WHO next week helps develop a clear plan of action.