Paradigm Shift Intervention Monitoring
twitter
Commentary
MERS Travel Log Riyadh London Chicago Munster
Recombinomics Commentary 12:30
May 3, 2014
The above comments from the May 2 CDC presser on the first confirmed MERS case in the United States creates some confusion about the location of the case between April 24-27, since the patient has been in the US since “since April 27.”
However, the timing of the flights cited above suggest that time was also in the United States. The British Airways Flight 262 is schedule to depart Riyadh (RUH) at 12:35 AM and arrive in London (LHR) at 5:25 AM. American Airlines Flight 99 is scheduled to leave Riyadh (RUH) at 7:45A and arrive in Chicago (ORD) at 10:05 AM, suggesting he caught the connecting flight and arrived in Chicago in the morning of April 24.
Although Munster is in Indiana, it is a Chicago suburb that is about 30 mile from Ohara Airport (ORD), so the bus ride would have been relatively short and would have happened three days prior to disease onset, reducing the likelihood of transmission to fellow travelers on the two planes, at the three airports, or on the bus.
Those at the Emergency Department of Community Hospital in Munster would be more at risk, but since the patient is a health care worker from KSA, he likely warned the medical personnel of the likely etiological agent causing his MERS symptoms, and appropriate precautions were likely taken. Moreover, the patient is receiving oxygen and in stable condition (not intubated), suggesting a lower viral load which would also limit transmission.
However, the export of MERS from KSA to the United States follows six recent MERS exports from Jeddah, raising concerns that a novel sub-clade has emerged, as was seen in 2003 for SARS. The sequences from three Jeddah patients have been made public, and release of sequences from the Indiana patient would be useful.
Recombinomics
Presentations
Recombinomics
Publications
Recombinomics
Paper
at Nature Precedings