[Blitzer:] A potentially deadly disease, a growing number of cases around the world. Health experts are keying a very close watch on the MERS virus, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. There are now two confirmed cases here in the United States. Both health care workers who contracted the disease while in Saudi Arabia. Let's get straight to the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is there for us. Elizabeth, lots of concern about two other health care workers who became ill after taking care of these MERS patients at least one of the MERS patients in Florida. Do health care workers do these two health care workers have MERS?
[Elizabeth Cohen, Cnn Senior Medical Correspondent:] Right, Florida the state of Florida tested these patient, Wolf, and they say, no, they don't have MERS. That's according to the Centers for Disease Control. Now, specimens from these two health care workers arrived here at the CDC this morning in Atlanta. And as we speak, the CDC is retesting these specimens to make sure that Florida got it right. But what we're told now is that their tests have turned out negative and they are working to confirm that.
[Blitzer:] Now, as you know, new posters are going up at major U.S. airports warning about MERS. I've seen those posters. So do passengers, all passengers, need to be worried right now about getting this virus?
[Cohen:] You know what, all passengers don't need to be worried. What the CDC says, if you've come off a flight from the Arabian peninsula and you have certain symptoms, like a cough or a fever, you should talk to your doctor. As a matter of fact, if someone gets off a flight from the Arabian peninsula and they seem ill, airline employees are told, hey, pull that person aside and call the CDC. The CDC, which has offices at airports, wants to talk to these passengers. So, you know, if you're not going to the Arabian peninsula, there's no special reason for you to be concerned. But, if you've come from the peninsula and you're feeling ill, then you should go see a doctor.
[Blitzer:] I'm going to be speaking later in "The Situation Room" with the assistant director general director of the World Health Organization in Geneva. But MERS is now no longer just in the Arabian peninsula. As you know, Elizabeth, it's spread to about 18 countries, including the United States. So, I suspect that that's why folks have to be worried about too much potential contact, not just in the Arabian peninsula, but maybe elsewhere.
[Cohen:] Right. That's true. I mean these for example, let's take the two MERS patients who are in the United States, in Florida and Indiana. There is the potential that they've spread it to other people. For example, health care workers who were taking care of them before they realized they had MERS, could they have spread it to them? Well, what we know is that so far they haven't. Or these two patients, who were both on long flights, and in Indiana, the Indiana patient, he was on a flight from London to Chicago. And that patient did not give anyone on that plane MERS. So is there reason to be concerned, yes, but what we've seen so far is that these two patients in the U.S. have not spread it to anybody else. And that speaks to how difficult it is to spread this virus. It's not like the flu, Wolf. It's a whole different kind of virus.
[Blitzer:] Unfortunately, though, it apparently kills about a third of those who get this virus. And that's, obviously, very, very terrifying when you think about it. Elizabeth Cohen outside the CDC in Atlanta. We'll check back with you. Thanks so much. Terrified to go to school. After more than 200 girls in Nigeria were snatched from their dorm beds, fear is spreading in the region. We'll have an exclusive report. Up next, Magic Johnson's advice for Donald Sterling. All part of his exclusive interview with our own Anderson Cooper.