MERS toll in Saudi Arabia hits 60

The death toll from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus in the Kingdom hit 60 on Sunday after a 22-year-old succumbed to the disease, health officials said. The victim's death was announced by the Ministry of Health in each website, which described him as also suffering from cancer. Saudi Arabia, the country worst hit by MERS, has recorded 145 cases, of which 60 have now proved fatal, since the virus first appeared in September 2012. Agence France Presse reported that of 182 cases of MERS infection worldwide that were reported to World Health Organization (WHO), 79 have died, including 60 in Saudi Arabia. Experts are struggling to understand the disease, for which there is no vaccine. MERS is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.