Saudia Arabia's Health Ministry on Saturday said it has found 25 cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) with two fatalities within two days, bringing the total death toll to 109 and the total number of cases to 396.

Saudi Arabia recorded the biggest daily increase in new infections at 18 on Saturday from Friday's seven as authorities feared more cases will be reported in the next few days. The new cases include 10 in Jeddah, nine in Riyadh, four in Mecca and two in Medina.

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Millions of foreign pilgrims are expected to visit Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia during the Ramadan in July and millions more are set to be in Mecca for the annual Haj in October.

MERS is a coronavirus similar to the deadly SARS. The World Health Organization (WHO) said people infected with the virus experience fever, shortness of breath, coughing and pneumonia.

It was originally discovered in the kingdom two years ago and the infections have more than doubled since last month. Health authorities, however, said the number of deaths as slowed this month.

Meanwhile, the WHO issued a statement on Friday urging health workers around the world to practice good hand hygiene when in contact with patients to protect these patients from being infected while inside health facilities.

Initial results from a new WHO global survey confirm that these infections are often resistant to the antibiotics used to treat them.

WHO said in the statement that patients who are infected with germs that do not respond well to antibiotics generally have worse clinical outcome.

Of every 100 hospitalized patients, at least 7 in high-income and 10 in low- to middle-income countries will acquire a healthcare-associated infection, the global health organization said. 

Every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by healthcare-associated infections, a high proportion of which is caused by germs that are resistant to antimicrobial drugs, the WHO revealed.

TagsMERS Virus, MERS US, Coronavirus, Saudi Arabia MERS cases