No Sign So Far of MERS Spread in U.S.

Two confirmed cases of the often deadly MERS virus have been reported in the United States. But so far there’s no evidence that these patients spread the disease to anyone in this country, health officials said. And the World Health Organization affirmed May 13 that it does not consider MERS a public health emergency. That’s because so far there been no “sustained human-to-human transmission.” MERS stands for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. It is caused by a type of coronavirus. More than 500 cases have been confirmed worldwide. Nearly one-third of the patients died. Most cases occurred in the Middle East. It has spread only to health care workers and others in very close contact with people who were ill. The two new cases involved health care workers who had traveled to the United States. They had cared for MERS patients in the Middle East. Two U.S.