I haven't had time to read all the articles, but I did read a report on the investigation of the first cases in Jordan. While it answers a lot of questions, it raises others: The first case was a 25-year-old university student with no contact with animals and no travel, whose onset was on March 21. He was admitted to Zarqa hospital in April 4, put into critical care next day, and then transferred to a hospital in Amman where he died on April 25. Two of his caregivers in Zarqa fell ill, but his mother did not.
Intriguingly, Case 2 was probably a 30-year-old male nurse whose onset was estimated as March 29—days before the university student was admitted. The nurse spent time in critical care but recovered and was discharged on April 23. Similarly, Case 3, a 40-year-old ICU nurse, had onset of symptoms on April 2, two days before the admission of Case 1.
Something, clearly, was in the environment of Zarqa and its hospital. I hope this is just the first of numerous studies of the origins of MERS.
