Case characteristics among Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak and non-outbreak cases in Saudi Arabia from 2012 to 2015

Alhamlan, F S; Majumder, M S; Brownstein, J S; Hawkins, J; Al-Abdely, H M; Alzahrani, A; Obaid, D A; Al-Ahdal, M N; BinSaeed, A

The prevalence of MERS-CoV was highest in the Riyadh region with 46.91% of the total reported cases, followed by the Jeddah (21%), AlAhsa (5.69%), AlMadinah Almonowarah (4.81%), Eastern (4.73%), AlTaif (4. Demographic characteristics During the study period, a total of 1250 patients from 0 to 109 years old were reported as infected with MERS-CoV in Saudi Arabia. MERS-CoV was prevalent among individuals who were 30 years or older; in contrast, individuals who were 26 years or younger exhibited very low incidence. The distribution of age for all reported cases was almost normal, with a mean of 50.825 years and an SD of 19.494 years. MERS-CoV was more prevalent in men (64.77% of total reported cases) than in women. Women had an average age of 48 years (SD, 19 years), with a minimum of zero and maximum of 90 years. Men had an average age of 52 years (SD, 19 years), with a minimum of zero and a maximum of 109 years (table 1) . We found a significant association between age and gender (χ 2 =15.22; p<0.01) and between gender and death for patients diagnosed with MERS-CoV (χ 2 =12.75; p<0.01).