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Jordanian woman dies of Mers infection in Abu Dhabi

A 32-year-old Jordanian woman has died of the Mers coronavirus in Abu Dhabi, a health official has said.

The woman, who was pregnant when diagnosed with the infection, had delivered her baby.
“She died yesterday,” Dr Jamal Al Kaabi, director of Customer Care and Corporate Communications at the Health Authority-Abu Dhabi (HAAD), told Khaleej Times today. He added that the baby survived.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the woman was admitted at the hospital on November 22 and was in critical condition. She delivered her baby by Caesarean at 32 weeks.

This is the first time that a pregnant woman was diagnosed with coronavirus.

Dr Asim Malik, consultant and head of infectious diseases at Mafraq Hospital, had earlier warned of the “potentially dangerous complications” to the pregnant woman. He said that coronavirus caused a variety of complications and could lead to respiratory and renal failure.

Her husband, a 38-year old Jordanian with diabetes mellitus, developed the symptoms in November 15 and was admitted to the hospital in November 20. Their eight-year old son had mild respiratory symptoms detected following an investigation of the family contacts. The father was in a critical but stable condition, while the son was kept in isolation.

WHO said the Jordanian couple had no recent travel history, no contact with a known confirmed case and no history of contact with animals.

“Further investigations into close contacts of the family, the newborn baby, and healthcare workers are ongoing,” WHO said.

This is the second locally confirmed death in the UAE, out of the eight Mers laboratory confirmed cases. The first patient who died in August was an 82-year old Emirati man with multiple myeloma who did not have any travel history.

From September 2012, a total of 163 laboratory-confirmed Mers cases, including 68 deaths, have been informed to WHO.