The deadly MERS virus, originally found in Saudi Arabia and only in a few cases outside that nation, is now considered as having spread across the entire Middle East.

Egypt has issued a travel warning to Saudi Arabia after an Egyptian man has been found to have the fatal virus.  Over 100 people have died after contracting the killer disease with a mortality rate over 45%.

The news of the travel warning comes ahead of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca by millions of Muslims around the world.

Egypt’s warning also includes the rare step of telling those with children under 15, adults over 65, pregnant women and anyone who suffers from respiratory diseases to not make the pilgrimage to Mecca this year.

Dr. Ala Alwan of the World Health Organization said the most concerning thing is that most of the cases now have been confirmed as human-to-human transmission rather than from bats or camels.

“Approximately 75 per cent of the recently reported cases are secondary cases, meaning that they are considered to have acquired the infection from another case through human-to-human transmission,” Dr Ala Alwan wrote in a statement.