Virus hangs over Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca

After they got married last year, Homaira and Jahan Hamid decided they would embark on the hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia "as soon as possible," before parental duties began to crowd out their religious obligations.

When the Northridge couple discovered that a mysterious and sometimes deadly virus had emerged in the desert kingdom, killing more than 40% of the people it was known to have infected, they briefly reconsidered.

The hajj — which every able Muslim must attend at least once in their lives — annually draws to Mecca as many as 3 million people, all gathered together. Last Friday, the Hamids boarded a long-planned flight to the region, stowing surgical face masks and vitamins along with their clothing and other essentials.

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Doctors and emergency departments in Southern California, per instructions from local and state departments of public health, will be on the lookout for fevers, respiratory woes and other telltale signs of illness in people who've recently traveled from the region.

Severe coughs or flu-like symptoms could be a sign of infection with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, as the virus is known — and an indication that the infection, thus far detected only in the Middle East and Europe, had spread to the U.S.

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http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-mers-hajj-20131010,0,1085118.story