MERS virus kills 19 in seven days in Saudi: Ministry
The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) has caused 19 more deaths, all Saudis, in the last seven days in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry said on Thursday that the death toll from MERS has now reached 502 people since the disease was identified in 2012.
Last week, Saudi authorities shut off the emergency ward of a hospital located in Riyadh's King Abdulaziz Medical City after 46 new cases of the deadly disease emerged in Riyadh.
The fresh breakout of MERS has raised serious concerns that the disease could become a national epidemic, threatening the more than two million visitors expected next month for the annual hajj pilgrimage.
Critics say Saudi health measures to tackle MERS are slow and inadequate.
Saudi officials are now being criticized for their failure to uproot the disease, due to the country’s lax sanitary standards and the authorities' lack of vigilance towards the popular endemic.
According to updated figures posted on the ministry's website, the number of MERS infections has risen to 1,171 cases.
Outside the kingdom, at least 20 deaths from MERS have been reported in South Korea.
Cases of MERS have also been recently reported in the Philippines, China and Thailand.
MERS can cause symptoms such as fever, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure in its victims.
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