Outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus Causes High Fatality After Cardiac Operations

Abstract

Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV) resembles a severe form of community-acquired pneumonia initially reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The MERS-CoV epidemic poses a big challenge because of its high mortality. In January 2015, a patient who was potentially incubating MERS-CoV arrived from the emergency department of another hospital and was admitted with acute coronary syndrome. This resulted in an outbreak in the cardiac surgery ward that caused the deaths of 5 of 6 patients who had undergone cardiac operations.