2 expats die of MERS in Taif, Al-Qunfudah

February 3, 2018

Riyadh, Feb 3: Two have died out of seven new cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) during the past six days, the Ministry of Health announced Thursday.

Confirming the deaths, an official from the ministry said that the deceased were two expatriate men, 60 and 50 years of age, from Taif and Al-Qunfudah respectively. He said both had been suffering from previous illnesses.

During the past seven days, the ministry has reported seven new cases in Riyadh, Hail, Al-Qunfudah, Tabuk, Buraidah, and Taif.

Since July 2012, a total of 1,785 patients have been infected by MERS-CoV in all parts of the Kingdom. They included 727 deaths, 1,047 recoveries and 11 patients currently under treatment.

Dr. Zakir Hussain, a medical specialist told Arab News that the disease becomes more serious due to patient negligence. “They should immediately visit their doctors when they have a continuous high fever coupled with a runny nose or cold, or chest infection.

He said those who suffer from chronic diseases are easy targets and it affects people who have less immunity against diseases. He added that those who died were suffering from previous illnesses.

MERS-CoV causes a severe infection in humans resulting in a high mortality rate and has proven the ability to transmit between humans. So far, they observed non-sustained human-to-human transmission has occurred mainly in health care environments.

Urging its member states to conduct regular surveillance for respiratory infections, the World Health Organization (WHO) has advised health officials to carefully review any unusual patterns.

People are encouraged to follow the basics of personal and food hygiene practices, and also avoid drinking raw camel milk or camel urine, or eating meat that has not been properly cooked, WHO said, stressing that washing hands after touching animals is imperative to avoid infections.

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News Network
November 17,2024

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An Israeli airstrike on the office of Syria’s Baath party in Lebanon’s capital Beirut has killed the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah's Media Relations Officer, Mohammad Afif, reports say.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that the Israeli raid struck the Ba'ath party’s building in central Beirut district of Ras Al-Naba'a on Sunday, adding that the strike was an attempt to assassinate the leader of the resistance media front.

According to Baath Secretary-General Ali Hijazi, Afif was having a meeting in the Baath Party headquarters when Israel carried out the attack.

"Afif did not fight with weapons and did not lead a military unit in Hezbollah. Rather, he led a media unit," he said.

Reuters, Sky News, Al Jazeera and a number of Henrew-language media reported that Afif was killed in the Israeli strike.

However, Hezbollah has not yet confirmed Afif’s death or whether he was present at the site or not.

Earlier, the Lebanese Health Ministry said at least one person was killed and three others injured after an Israeli strike targeted a central district in Beirut.

Lebanon's al-Mayadeen television network reported that five people were killed in the attack.

The latest development came after Afif said Hezbollah was behind the Caesarea operation and targeting Netanyahu’s home during a speech at the Ghobeiry area in the southern suburbs of Beirut on October 22.

This was the second assassination attempt on Afif in the last two months, after he survived an attack on the Hezbollah media relations office several weeks ago.

Israel launched a ground assault and massive air campaign against Lebanon in late September after a year of exchanging fire across the Lebanese border in parallel with the Gaza war.

At least 3,287 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past year, with the vast majority in the past seven weeks. Another 14,222 have been wounded, mostly women and children.

In response to the ongoing aggression, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has been staging hundreds of retaliatory strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli forces trying to advance on southern Lebanese areas.

The movement has vowed to sustain its strikes until the regime ends the escalation.

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News Network
November 4,2024

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Hundreds of Israeli settlers conducted a brutal attack in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

The settlers set fire to numerous homes and vehicles of Palestinians and then moved to the main road connecting Ramallah to other cities, targeting Palestinian cars passing by.

They stormed the city of al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and burned Palestinian property and vehicles.

A woman sustained injuries after the settlers hurled stones at her vehicle, according to Palestinian news outlets.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank because of Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 43,341 people, mostly women and children, since last year’s October.

The Monday settler attack came as the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas warned of Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank and drive Palestinians out.

“We warn of the grave danger posed by the plans led by the extremist occupation regime and illegal settler groups to displace the residents of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank,” Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said.

Israel's far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the full annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip last week.

Smotrich asserted that Israel should unequivocally declare there would be no Palestinian state.

He repeated his proposal of expanding Israeli settlements within the West Bank and other occupied territories.

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