As we know, age and underlying diseases, or "co-morbidities", are significant risk factors for more severe disease following MERS-CoV infection.
These data give an the world an insight into one visiting population, does it hold true for other countries as well? If so, we get a snapshot of why public health officials are concerned for the health of their country's Hajj pilgrims in the coming months. MERS-CoV transmission efficiency may be low, but the clicnial impact from this gathering may be high.
Globally mobile at-risk population + site of most infections + little knowledge of basic levels of virus source/community load at that site = less than ideal situation.
