Saudi Arabia reported eight MERS cases and one death in 2026, WHO says
The infections, detected across six regions between January and early October, had no links to one another. Globally MERS-CoV has caused 2,643 cases and 965 deaths since 2012.
Meningococcal cases tracked Umrah as pilgrim vaccination compliance fell to 54%
WHO recorded serogroup W135 disease in pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia in early 2025. A modelling study estimates high vaccination coverage would cut expected cases by more than 80%.
Saudi Arabia reports serious road crashes down 46% over a decade
A review by the country's Public Health Authority credits enforcement and awareness campaigns for falls in crashes, deaths and injuries from 2013 to 2023 — while naming what still holds the Vision 2030 target back.
Three regional studies show AMR's three fronts: resistance, cost, misuse
Papers in WHO EMRO's journal document multidrug-resistant hospital infections in Saudi Arabia, unaffordable injectable antibiotics in Iran, and antibiotic use without prescription in displaced Syrians.
Saudi life expectancy climbed nearly six years since 2016, the health ministry says
Coverage access rose from 86% to 96.4% of the population in four years. The government's own target — 80 years by 2030 — is now less than a year of progress away.
Two Saudi surveys find vaping widespread and tied to how users see it
Cross-sectional studies from the country's south and east report about a third of respondents vaping, with attitudes — not knowledge — the factor most strongly linked to use.
Sleep got worse during Ramadan and mood mostly didn't — in a cohort of 30 Saudi women
Stress peaked during the fasting month and fell afterwards, but depression and anxiety stayed flat. The consistent finding across every phase was that sleep quality tracked mental health.
Nearly half the Hajj heat-illness patients in a 2024 review were 60 or older
A study across nine facilities in Makkah recorded 1,576 cases of heat exhaustion or heatstroke and a 4.9% mortality rate — in a region where heat-health research remains remarkably thin.
MERS left the Middle East for the first time since 2019 — twice, in one week in France
Nineteen MERS cases were reported worldwide in 2025, seventeen of them in Saudi Arabia. The two in France are the first infections detected outside the region in six years.