CDC Confirms Second Case of Deadly Middle Eastern Virus in the U.S.

Calling it an "unwelcome but not unexpected" development, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Florida Department of Health officials announced on Monday that they are investigating the second case of a MERS-CoV infection in the U.S.

The first case of MERS, a viral-respiratory illness first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012, was reported earlier this month in Indiana.

The second patient, who is now in quarantine at an Orlando-area hospital, was a health-care worker who had traveled to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, officials said on a conference call Monday afternoon. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general for the United States Public Health Service and Director, and John H. Armstrong, Florida’s state surgeon general and secretary of health, collectively made the announcement and answered reporters' questions about the case. Read more...