Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Virology. Aug 12, 2015; 4(3): 185-187
Published online Aug 12, 2015. doi: 10.5501/wjv.v4.i3.185
Middle-East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: Is it worth a world panic?
Ahmed S Abdel-Moneim
Ahmed S Abdel-Moneim, Microbiology Department, Virology Division, College of Medicine, Taif University, Al-Taif 21944, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia
Ahmed S Abdel-Moneim, Virology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef 62511, Egypt
Author contributions: Abdel-Moneim AS solely contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author does not have any conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Ahmed S Abdel-Moneim, PhD, Professor, Microbiology Department, Virology Division, College of Medicine, Taif University, Airport Rd, Al Huwaya, Al-Taif 21944, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia. asa@bsu.edu.eg
Telephone: +966-59-9107854 Fax: +966-12-7250528
Received: February 6, 2015
Peer-review started: February 8, 2015
First decision: April 10, 2015
Revised: April 18, 2015
Accepted: May 5, 2015
Article in press: May 6, 2015
Published online: August 12, 2015
Abstract

In 2012 Middle-East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was evolved in the Arabian Peninsula. Tremendous and successful efforts have been conducted to discover the genome structure, epidemiology, clinical signs, pathogenesis, diagnosis and antiviral therapy. Taphozous perforatus bats are the incriminated reservoir host and camels are the currently confirmed animal linker. The virus resulted in less than 1000 infected cases and 355 deaths. The case fatality rate of the MERS-CoV is high, however, many survivors of MERS-CoV infection showed inapparent infections and, in several cases, multiple co-infecting agents did exist. Although MERS-CoV appears to be a dangerous disease, it is argued here that a full assessment of current knowledge about the disease does not suggest that it is a truly scary killer.

Keywords: Coronavirus, Camels, Disease threat to humans, Middle-East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Mortality rate

Core tip: Middle-East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) emerged as a novel human coronavirus in 2012. Although it induces a high level of case fatality, fatal infections were recorded mainly in immune compromised patients and co-infections were frequently recorded. Camels are the currently known natural animal host and are susceptible to mild non-fatal infections. There is a growing evidence that the virus has been circulating in camels for decades in the Middle East, Africa and possibly other areas where camel herds are present. The fact that the virus has existed for decades, together with the absence of large-scale human mortalities from unknown respiratory infections, gives a first indication that MERS-CoV is not a particularly dangerous virus.