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Middle East respiratory syndrome
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Middle East respiratory syndrome

Ziad A Memish, Stanley Perlman, Maria D Van Kerkhove and Alimuddin Zumla
The Lancet, Vol.395(10229), pp.1063-1077
03/04/2020
DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(19)33221-0
PMID: 32145185
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)33221-0View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a lethal zoonotic pathogen that was first identified in humans in Saudi Arabia and Jordan in 2012. Intermittent sporadic cases, community clusters, and nosocomial outbreaks of MERS-CoV continue to occur. Between April 2012 and December 2019, 2499 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection, including 858 deaths (34·3% mortality) were reported from 27 countries to WHO, the majority of which were reported by Saudi Arabia (2106 cases, 780 deaths). Large outbreaks of human-to-human transmission have occurred, the largest in Riyadh and Jeddah in 2014 and in South Korea in 2015. MERS-CoV remains a high-threat pathogen identified by WHO as a priority pathogen because it causes severe disease that has a high mortality rate, epidemic potential, and no medical countermeasures. This Seminar provides an update on the current knowledge and perspectives on MERS epidemiology, virology, mode of transmission, pathogenesis, diagnosis, clinical features, management, infection control, development of new therapeutics and vaccines, and highlights unanswered questions and priorities for research, improved management, and prevention.

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