Among the nine patients undergoing hemodialysis
at Hospital A who had confirmed MERSCoV
infection, eight had an onset of disease
before or within 24 hours after infection-control
interventions were implemented on April 21.
These interventions included monitoring hand
hygiene, implementing droplet and contact precautions
for febrile patients, testing patients with
fever for MERS-CoV, putting masks on all patients undergoing hemodialysis, not allowing patients
with suspected MERS-CoV infection into the
dialysis unit, enhancing environmental cleaning,
and excluding visitors and nonessential staff. In
the 8 days after implementation of precautions,
illness developed in six patients: MERS-CoV infection
was confirmed in one patient (Patient P)
and was classified as probable in five patients; no
additional confirmed cases occurred from May 1
to May 23.