CNN News:美國(guó)出現(xiàn)中東呼吸系統(tǒng)綜合癥疫情

It's time for ten minutes of commercial freecurrent events. This is CNN STUDENT NEWS. Myname is Carl Azuz. Welcome to the show, we arestarting today between Europe and the Middle Eastin the nation of Turkey. It's a country in mourning.During a shift change at a West Turkish mine onTuesday, a power transformer exploded. It sparkeda fire deep inside the mine. Rescuers were able tosave at least 88 miners, the Turkish officials say 274 others are dead. Some people wereholding out hope that dozens of miners were trapped, but still alive. Those hopes were fadinglast night.

Rescuers say conditions inside the mine are horrible: hot, smoky, field with carbon monoxideafter the fire. Families and friends of miners have been holding a vigil outside. What happenedthis week in the town of Soma, is likely to become the worst mining disaster in Turkey'shistory.

The MERS virus we've been telling you about has spread. The World Health Organization saysthis is not a global health emergency at this point.

But that the threat from MERS has become more serious. MERS stands for Middle EastRespiratory Syndrome. The first cases were in Saudi Arabia, and as you can see from this map,how the disease has spread, it's reached 18 countries. Worldwide, there have been 571confirmed cases of MERS, 171 people have died from it. There have been two cases of MERS inthe U.S. One in Indiana, one in Florida. Both of them were health care workers who traveled toSaudi Arabia. The silver lining here is that MERS doesn't spread very quickly or easily.

MERS, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, has come to the United States. The virus was firstconfirmed in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and has killed about a third of the hundreds it's infected.MERS doesn't appear to spread easily between humans like the flu does, for example.

Risk to the general public remains low, according to the Centers for Disease, Control andPrevention. It takes close contact with the sick person, usually a health care worker or a lovedone to catch the virus.

MERS is in the same family of viruses as the common cold, but the reason why authorities areso concerned is that it has a 30 percent mortality rate. MERS attacks the respiratorysystem, and symptoms include fever and cough and can progress to pneumonia and kidneyfailure.

Experts don't know exactly where the virus came from, but it's been linked to infected camelsin Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East. There's no vaccine or medicine toprevent or cure MERS.

To help protect yourself, the CDC advises you to wash your hands, don't touch your eyes,nose or mouth with unclean hands and avoid close contact with sick people.