Story maps
故事地圖

MERS-CoV infection began as a local threat in Middle Eastern countries as a result of human exposure to infected camels. Human-to-human transmissions have also been reported, especially in health care institutions because of defective infection control precautions. The map shows the cumulative distribution of MERS-CoV infections occurring at country level (black label on map), after excluding imported cases. Outside the Arabian Peninsula, all local infections were caused by human-to-human transmissions, as reported in United Kingdom, France, Tunisia and Iran. In May 2015, there was one reported case in South Korea from a patient with travel history in the Middle East. Secondary and tertiary transmissions within Korea then occurred in his household and the hospitals. One infected person had travelled from Korea to Huizhou, Guangdong via Hong Kong (red label on map), and whose confirmed diagnosis was only made afterwards. Characteristically most of these secondary and tertiary infections were relatively mild clinically. The last laboratory confirmed case was reported on 4 July 2015, hence a signal of cessation of the outbreak in South Korea. In this outbreak, there were 185 confirmed cases of which 36 died. As of September 2015, World Health Organization has recorded a total of over 1500 cases worldwide with over 500 deaths in the 3-year period since the first case of MERS-CoV infection was reported. With the efficient transportation system in operation for the human population, it is inevitable that the virus is going global!

Data for the map were derived from reported statistics of the World Health Organization and FluTrackers.

顧名思義，中東呼吸綜合症病毒源自中東，透過接觸受感染駱駝而傳播。人傳人的情況亦有發生，後者由於感染控制措施出現缺陷，促使病毒在醫療機構擴散。地圖顯示全球各國 (圖上黑色字體) 累積本土感染者的分佈，不包含外地傳入個案。在阿拉伯半島以外，所有中東呼吸綜合症病毒感染均經人傳人，所涉國家有英國、法國、突尼西亞和伊朗。2015年5月，韓國報告一例個案，感染者曾經到過中東國家。他回國後，在家居和醫院將病毒傳給其他人（第二代感染），後者再產生第三代感染。其中1例受感染個案從南韓經過香港到廣東惠州 (圖上紅色字體)，其後確診。這些續發感染人士臨床情況大部份相對較為溫和。而最後一例確診感染個案在2015年7月4日報告，為南韓的爆發畫上句號。總結南韓的疫情，總感染人數達到185人，而當中36人死亡。自首例中東呼吸綜合症病毒感染報告後的三年，世界衞生組織至今（2015年9月）已錄得超過一千五百宗確診個案，當中死亡的有五百多人。隨著運輸系統的發展，人類可以快速遊走全球各地，病毒亦同時向全球進發。

地圖資料源自世界衞生組織統計數據及FluTrackers。