Association of Higher MERS-CoV Virus Load with Severe Disease and Death, Saudi Arabia, 2014

• Published in: Emerging infectious diseases Vol. 21; no. 11; pp. 2029 - 2035
• Main Authors: Feikin, Daniel R., Alraddadi, Basem, Qutub, Mohammed, Shabouni, Omaima, Curns, Aaron, Oboho, Ikwo K., Tomczyk, Sara M., Wolff, Bernard, Watson, John T., Madani, Tariq A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01.11.2015; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Association of Higher MERS-CoV Virus Load with Severe Disease and Death, Saudi Arabia, 2014; Child; Coronavirus - genetics; Coronavirus - immunology; Coronavirus Infections - epidemiology; Coronavirus Infections - immunology; Coronavirus Infections - mortality; Coronavirus Infections - virology; Expedited; Female; Humans; Male; Measurement; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; MERS-CoV; Middle Aged; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; Prognosis; Saudi Arabia; Saudi Arabia - epidemiology; Viremia; virus load; viruses; zoonoses; Saudi Arabia; Saudi Arabia; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; zoonoses; viruses; MERS-CoV; virus load

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes a spectrum of illness. We evaluated whether cycle threshold (Ct) values (which are inversely related to virus load) were associated with clinical severity in patients from Saudi Arabia whose nasopharyngeal specimens tested positive for t...