Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: current knowledge and future considerations

Abstract

A literature review of publically available information was undertaken to summarize current understanding and gaps in knowledge about Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), including its origin, transmission, effective control measures and management. Major databases were searched and relevant published papers and reports during 2012-2015 were reviewed. Of the 2520 publications initially retrieved, 164 were deemed relevant. The collected results suggest that much remains to be discovered about MERS-CoV. Improved surveillance, epidemiological research and development of new therapies and vaccines are important, and the momentum of recent gains in terms of better understanding of disease patterns should be maintained to enable the global community to answer the remaining questions about this disease.

The deadly coronaviruses: The 2003 SARS pandemic and the 2020 novel coronavirus epidemic in China

“…There are three primary ways to transmit the virus, including close person-to-person contact, aerosol transmission, and transmission by touch [21][22][23]. The virus is thought to be transmitted to other people by respiratory droplets during coughing or sneezing.…”

Global research trends of World Health Organization’s top eight emerging pathogens

“…Marburg virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through human-to-human transmission [9][10][11][12][13] while Lassa fever is transmitted to humans through food contaminated with rodent feces or urine [14,15]. Middle East respiratory syndrome is caused by a coronavirus that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012 [16][17][18] while SARS, another coronavirus respiratory disease, was recognized on February 2003 [19,20]. Nipah virus, identified in 1998, is emerging zoonosis that affects both animals and humans [13,[21][22][23][24].…”

Diagnostic delays in 537 symptomatic cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in Saudi Arabia

“…Several studies have reported that people might not be able to identify MERS symptoms, the transmission cycle (Banik et al, 2015;Malik et al, 2016), and its etiology (Malik et al, 2016), due to the complexity of the disease. During the circulation of MERS-CoV in the past 5 years, the time interval between symptom onset and diagnosis has remained poorly understood in these patients.…”