The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Friday that it has been informed of six fresh laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in Saudi Arabia.

 

 

 Globally, since September 2012, WHO has been informed of a total of 136 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV that has claimed 58 lives, Xinhua reported citing WHO.

 

 The organisation said in its latest update that the six new patients were from Riyadh region in the age group of 14 to 79 years, of which three are women and three are men.The dates of onset of the patients range from Sep 15-26. One patient has mild symptoms while the others are hospitalised, according to the WHO.

 

 It said that three patients were contacts of previously confirmed cases with MERS-CoV, two were reported to have had no exposure to animals or a confirmed case, and there was no information on exposure of one patient.