Family Cluster of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Infections

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 368; no. 26; pp. 2487 - 2494
• Main Authors: Memish, Ziad A, Zumla, Alimuddin I, Al-Hakeem, Rafat F, Al-Rabeeah, Abdullah A, Stephens, Gwen M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Waltham, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 27.06.2013
• Series: Brief Report
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Antibiotics; Biological and medical sciences; Communicable Diseases, Emerging - virology; Coronaviridae; Coronavirus - classification; Coronavirus - isolation & purification; Coronavirus Infections - diagnostic imaging; Coronavirus Infections - virology; Coronaviruses; Disease Progression; Electrolytes; Fatalities; Fever; General aspects; Geriatrics; Hospitalization; Hospitals; Humans; Infections; Laboratories; Lung - diagnostic imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Middle East; Pain; Patients; Pneumonia, Viral - diagnostic imaging; Pneumonia, Viral - virology; Radiography; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory failure; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Saudi Arabia; Surveillance; Asia; Middle east; Middle East; Saudi Arabia; Riyadh Saudi Arabia; Virus; Medicine; Coronavirus; Respiratory disease; Family study; Family environment; Cluster; Coronaviridae; Respiratory system infection; Nidovirales; Syndrome
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1303729

A novel coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was recently identified as the cause of severe respiratory disease. In this report from Saudi Arabia, a family cluster of infection over a 6-week period is described, suggesting possible limited person-to-person transmission. MERS-CoV was first reported in September 2012 in samples obtained from a Saudi Arabian businessman who died from acute respiratory and renal failure. 1 As of May 28, 2013, a total of 49 cases of human MERS-CoV infection with 26 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO). MERS-CoV is the first betacoronavirus belonging to lineage C that is known to infect humans. 2 It belongs to the Coronaviridae family, a group of large, enveloped single-stranded RNA viruses that are known for their genomic plasticity and their ability to cause a range of infections in mammalian and avian hosts. MERS-CoV . . .