IPROC iproc Iproceedings 2369-6893 JMIR Publications Toronto, Canada v4i1e10603 10.2196/10603 Abstract Abstract MERS-CoV Outbreak at Domat Al-Jandal Hospital Khader Yousef Al-Guaimy Abdullah Kamel S Corresponding Author: Abdullah Al-Guaimy doctorabduallah@gmail.com Jan-Dec2018 29 03 2018 4 1 e10603 29 3 2018 29 3 2018 ©Abdullah Al-Guaimy, S Kamel. Originally published in Iproceedings (http://www.iproc.org), 29.03.2018. 2018

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 Background

Saudi Arabia was first to report MERS-CoV in the middle east region in 2012. Several outbreaks had occurred since that time and still occur. In August,2017 an outbreak of MERS-CoV at Al-Jouf province in Saudi Arabia possibly linked to an index case who admitted to hospital while infectious.

 Objective

A team of Saudi field epidemiology training program was responsible to investigate the outbreak, to determine causes and to prevent recurrence.

 Methods

List of cases were obtained from hospital administration. Information was collected by interviewing infection control team, outbreak team at hospital, local MERS-CoV coordinator and by observing most relevant sections at hospital.

 Results

A total of 13 cases of MERS CoV infection were reported at Domat Al-Jandal hospital. Of these 13 cases, 8 cases were health care workers (3 physicians and 5 nurses), 3 cases were contacts cases of the index case. Most of cases acquired infection by person to person transmission at male medical ward and intensive care unit, only 3 contacts cases may get infected when they brought the primary case to hospital. Attack rate among physicians was 12% and among nurses was 9.8%. We found that late diagnosis, improper isolation of patients and non-compliance on infection control protocols are the leading causes of spread of the infection.

 Conclusions

Sorting and examining patients carefully at triage and emergency before admission to hospital, adhering to infection control protocols, applying effective isolation measures are a must in the way to stop or prevent any MERS-CoV infection at hospitals.