MERS Crosses State Line

An Illinois man has contracted the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus from the Indiana patient who was recently hospitalized, marking the first confirmed human-to-human transmission of MERS within the U.S.

Written byBob Grant

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Transmission electron micrograph of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirusNIAIDUpdate (May 28): The CDC today said that the Indiana patient did not spread MERS to a business associate in Illinois. See “CDC: Business Meeting Did Not Spread MERS.”

An Illinois resident has contracted the coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) from a patient in Indiana that was hospitalized late last month, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed this weekend (May 17). This is the first documented transmission of MERS within the United States.

According to Melaney Arnold, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), the Illinois man, who is not showing symptoms of the respiratory illness, met with the Indiana patient twice before that patient was diagnosed with MERS. Their first meeting lasted 30 to 40 minutes on April 25, she said, and included two handshakes. And they met the next day for a shorter period of time.

The Illinois resident—whose identity is being ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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