Bangladesh reports first MERS case

Bangladesh today reported its first case of the deadly MERS virus after a 53-year-old man returning to his homeland from the US via Abu Dhabi was found afflicted with it.
The man has been admitted to a hospital and was recuperating, said Mahmudur Rahman, director of the national disease control agency, IEDCR.
"We have notified it to the WHO," he was quoted as saying by bdnews24.Com.
It was the first known case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)in Bangladesh. The country has become the 22nd nation to report a MERS coronavirus case, according to Rahman.
The virus has claimed 284 lives in Saudi Arabia since it first emerged in 2012, and has remained a global concern. Hundreds more have been infected in the Arab nation.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause a range of illnesses in humans, from common cold to lung infection to breathing difficulties and fever. It is considered deadlier but less transmissible cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed hundreds of people in Asia in 2003.

But, unlike SARS, the MERS can lead to rapid kidney failure.
So far, WHO recorded 699 cases of MERS with a mortality rate of 30 per cent. WHO says its understanding of the virus and the disease its causes is continuing to evolve.
Prof Rahman, also a WHO expert on the board reviewing MERS, warned against unnecessary panic, saying that there were no reports that virus spread further in the country.

The first case was detected after the man, not identified in the report, returned to Dhaka on June 4 via Abu Dhabi. He was admitted to hospital with severe breathlessness on June 9.
Undeterred Muslim pilgrims are travelling to Saudi Arabia, which is grappling to contain the virus, to perform Umra and Hajj. Nearly three million Bangladeshis work in Saudi Arabia -- mostly in Saudi Arabia.