With less than 60 MERS-CoV cases
scattered around the world why is it so difficult for national and
international public health agencies to report an accurate account of infected
individuals including the number who died.
The World Health Organization charged
with tracking health issues around the world reports that there have been 54 cases
of MERS-CoV infection and 30 deaths. [1]
The CDC-USA reports a total of 55 cases
and 30 deaths. [2]
A tabulation provided by the Virology
Down Under blog identifies a total count of 55 cases and 33 deaths. [3]
FluTrackers identifies 55 cases
but only 26 deaths in its list of cases. [4]
And through May 30, 2013, the ECDC reports
a total of 49 cases with 27 deaths. [5]
This confusion over the number of MERS-CoV
cases and how many deaths highlight the needs for one central, official, line
list of cases that is publicly available on the internet. Paramount in this case list is to distinguish
between confirmed cases, probable cases, and suspected cases. Ideally, this
line list would include cases that were previously reported as confirmed or
probable, and then later identified as negative cases. This would alleviate
much of the reporting and tabulation differences that occur when comparing case
counts from different agencies and organizations.
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