Abstract：Objective To analyze the epidemiological features of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) cases around the world and reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015 so as to provide guidance for its prevention and control. Methods We collected the information of MERS cases at home and abroad and reported to the WHO in 2015 from websites of WHO, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, and descriptive epidemiological method was employed for this analysis. Results A total of 12 countries reported 680 laboratory-confirmed MERS cases around the world in 2015, with 237 deaths and the case fatality rate of 34.85%. There were 444 male cases and 236 female ones, respectively accounting for 65.29% and 34.71% of the total reported cases. The median age was 55 years (10 months-109 years old). Most of the reported cases in 2015 were from Saudi Arabia (n=456, 67.06%), followed by South Korea (n=185, 27.21%). South Korea, Philippines, China and Thailand were the countries with a new outbreak in 2015. There were 3 main prevalence peaks in 2015, which mainly caused by clustering outbreaks in medical institutions of South Korea and Saudi Arabia. Conclusions Although aggregation epidemics caused by human-to-human transmission had occurred in families and outbreaks in medical institutions in 2015, a sustained community transmission had not yet appeared. Particular attention should be paid to preventing and controlling the occurrence of outbreaks in hospitals.
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2017, Vol. 24 
