Respiratory viruses are an emerging threat to global health security and have led to worldwide epidemics with substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic consequences. Coronaviruses (CoVs) are large, enveloped, positive sense RNA viruses that infect birds and a wide range of mammals, including humans. In 2012, a newly emerged human pathogenic coronavirus has caused an ongoing epidemic on the Arabian Peninsula. The designated Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) belongs to the Betacoronavirus genus lineage C and causes severe respiratory disease in humans.
MERS-CoV cases have been reported in 22 countries. In all countries almost all cases were somehow linked to Saudi Arabia. As of 16 Dec 2014, there have been a total of: 821 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection, including 355 deaths (reported to the WHO).
Dromedary camels are considered as a putative source for MERS-CoV infection in humans. Transmission between humans and camels has been described in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
In Israel, we examined around 200 hospitalized patients suffering from respiratory diseases for the presence of MERS-CoV. All found negative. In a further collaboration with Soroka, Hadassha, Rambam and Sheba hospitals additional 1000 patients were evaluated for the presence of MERS-CoV. All found negative. Thus, so far MERS-CoV was not identified in Israel.
