Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported on May 2 that the first U.S. case of imported Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS was confirmed in a health care worker who had traveled from Saudi Arabia to Indiana.After completing additional and more definitive laboratory tests, CDC officials have concluded that the Indiana MERS patient did not spread the virus to an Illinois associate during a business meeting they had before the patient became ill and was hospitalized. This underscores indications that transmission of reported MERS cases has occurred through prolonged exposures of health care workers and patients, or between care providers and patients.

MERS is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus called MERS-CoV that was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Since then, most of the confirmed cases have been in the Arabian Peninsula, and about 30 percent of these people died.

A second U.S. case of imported MERS was confirmed by CDC on May 11 in an Florida patient who is also a health care professional travelling from Saudi Arabia.

“The MERS situation in the U.S. represents a very low risk to the general public in this country,” CDC reports on its website. “CDC and other public health partners continue to investigate and respond to the changing situation to prevent the spread of MERS-CoV in the U.S.”