MIDDLE EAST NEWS
Updated May 6, 2013, 6:34 p.m. ET
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia, and BETSY MCKAY in Atlanta
Saudi Arabia's announcements in the past five days of seven new deaths from a SARS-like virus have heightened fears that the Mideast outbreak is entering a more-aggressive phase...
..."People are sending messages, SMSs, saying, 'stay home.' That all the hospitals have the virus. All," said one man, a cousin to one of the men who died and to two other men who have been sickened in the current outbreak and are still being treated.
The man confirmed an account from a hospital official in Hofuf that his three relatives had gone to three different hospitals in Eastern Province.
"The Ministry of Health just wants to close the books" by saying the latest outbreak is limited to one hospital, the man said, speaking on a Hofuf street lined with medical centers and pharmacies...
...In Hofuf on Monday, the guards posted outside the intensive-care unit at the private Al Moosa General Hospital were among the few signs of a medical crisis.
Malek al Moosa, the hospital's executive director, confirmed that many of the coronavirus patients were treated here. Mr. Moosa denied that his hospital was the center of the outbreak, however, and denied that it was the only hospital treating patients stricken with the virus... Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...461787346.html
hattip SHILOH
