2nd MERS patient spent 4 hours in busy ER waiting room. U.S. Health officials confirmed the second case of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, MERS CoV, has been confirmed in Orange County, Florida, after the patient spent at least four hours in a public waiting room of the emergency department. Eight additional hours elapsed before the patient was put into isolation and medical personal at Orlando's Dr. P. Phillips Hospital donned protective gear.
Almost eight more hours passed before staff at Orlando's Dr. P. Phillips Hospital determined the patient had traveled from Saudi Arabia, where he worked at a hospital, began to suspect his exposure to MERS and had him moved to an isolation room, the hospital's chief quality control officer said.
The extended window of time may have exposed hospital staff and other patients to the virus, which is responsible for a worsening outbreak in Saudi Arabia and is estimated to kill about a third of infected patients.
Florida officials said they were monitoring the health of 20 healthcare workers who had been in contact with the patient, including a doctor who had already left for Canada. They also were trying to track down nearly 100 people who may have overlapped with the patient at two Orlando medical facilities he visited.
The Centers for Disease Control and Transportation Security Administration has posted MERS warning signs at 22 major U.S. airports.
MERS is corona virus from the same family as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, and causes coughing, fever, sometimes pneumonia and is fatal in about 30 percent of those infected. So far more than 500 have been infected in this outbreak in Saudi Arabia.
The CDC and the WHO are working in close coordination with local health authorities and President Barack Obama has been briefed on the confirmed cases.
Official from the Dr. P. Phillips Hopital in Orlando reported on Tuesday that two of their healthcare workers have become ill after being exposed to the MERS patient, and are being isolated and monitored MERS typically takes 5 to 14 days to develop into symptoms an is fatal in about 30% of cases.
The patient works in a hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, which has been treating MERS patients, and started experiencing symptoms on a flight from Jeddah to London, then developed a fever during the flight from London to Boston, before taking connecting flights to Atlanta and Orlando.
The first U.S. MERS case in Indiana has recovered and been released. There were no secondary cases.