Six people in Saudi Arabia, including two expats, have contracted Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in the last week, local media have claimed.
The new cases reportedly include two expat males aged 27 and 48 who are in a critical condition in hospital.
Of the four other patients, including two women, one was directly infected from camels, doctors were quoted as saying.
Mers is a viral respiratory disease that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
Since then, there have been 1,806 reported laboratory-confirmed cases of Mers and 643 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). A total of 27 countries have reported cases of Mers. The disease is typically spread from animals, such as camels, to humans.
Arab News claims the majority of cases – 1,546 people since 2012 – have occurred within the kingdom. The health ministry has issued repeated warnings to the public to refrain from contact with camels.
A report last year said a Qatar government official had revealed studies were under way to develop a vaccine for Mers.
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