DoD Lab Finds Deadly Virus

A laboratory in Egypt funded by the Defense Department is being credited with detecting the first known case of Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS), which to date has killed 145 of the 536 persons it has stricken. The virus, which causes acute respiratory illness, including fever and cough, has been traced to camels in Qatar, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. The lab that made the discovery is part of the Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (GEIS), which is operated under the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center. The center first identified what would later be termed a version of the MERS virus among patients in a Jordanian hospital in 2012. The organization has since forwarded its findings to the Centers for Disease Control.