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Volume 22, Number 4—April 2016
Dispatch

Exportations of Symptomatic Cases of MERS-CoV Infection to Countries outside the Middle East

Cristina CariasComments to Author , Justin J. O’Hagan, Amy Jewett, Manoj Gambhir, Nicole J. Cohen, Yoni Haber, Nicki Pesik, and David L. Swerdlow
Author affiliations: IHRC, Inc., Atlanta (C. Carias, J.J. O’Hagan); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (C. Carias, J.J. O’Hagan, A. Jewett, M. Gambhir, N.J. Cohen, Y. Haber, N. Pesik, D.L. Swerdlow); Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (M. Gambhir)

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Table 3

Estimated annual number of symptomatic cases of MERS-CoV infection exported and likelihood of >1 exportation for countries outside the Middle East among source country residents traveling outside the Middle East*

Country of destination
 Observed no. symptomatic cases exported
 No. cases exported from source countries (95% CI); % likelihood for >1 exportation†
Jordan
 KSA
 Qatar
 UAE
Italy‡ 0 0 (0–4); 1 0 (0–4); 18 NA 0 (0–4); 8
Malaysia§ 0 0 (0–4); 0 0 (0–4); 33 0 (0–4); 1 0 (0–4); 2
Tunisia‡ 0 0 (0–4); 0 0 (0–4); 2 0 (0–4); 0 0 (0–4); 0
United Kingdom§ 0 0 (0–4); 0 0 (0–4); 35 0 (0–4); 3 0 (0–4); 25
United States§ 2 from KSA 0 (0–4); 0 1 (0–5); 51 0 (0–4); 2 0 (0–4); 8

*The incubation period considered was 5.5 days (95% CI 3.6–10.2 days) (8). MERS-CoV, Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus; KSA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; UAE, United Arab Emirates; NA, not available.
†Information on Middle Eastern visitors to France, Netherlands, and Greece was not available. Number of Middle Eastern residents visiting Algeria and Austria was not available by country of residence.
‡Number of Middle Eastern visitors traveling to Italy and Tunisia corresponds to persons whose nationality is that of Middle Eastern source countries.
§Number of Middle Eastern visitors traveling to Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and the United States corresponds to residents in the Middle East.

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