Nearly 4 years after the first report of the emergence of Middle-East respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and nearly 1800 human cases later, the ecology of MERS-CoV, its epidemiology, and more than risk factors of MERS-CoV transmission between camels are poorly understood. Knowledge about the pathways and mechanisms of transmission from animals to humans is limited; as of yet, transmission risks have not been quantified. Moreover the divergent sanitary situations and exposures to animals among populations in the Arabian Peninsula, where human primary cases appear to dominate, vs. other regions in the Middle East and Africa, with no reported human clinical cases and where the virus has been detected only in dromedaries, represents huge scientific and health challenges. Here, we have used expert-opinion elicitation in order to obtain ideas on relative importance of MERS-CoV risk factors and estimates of transmission risks from various types of contact between humans and dromedaries. Fourteen experts with diverse and extensive experience in MERS-CoV relevant fields were enrolled and completed an online questionnaire that examined pathways based on several scenarios, e.g., camels-camels, camels-human, bats/other species to camels/humans, and the role of diverse biological substances (milk, urine, etc.) and potential fomites. Experts believed that dromedary camels play the largest role in MERS-CoV infection of other dromedaries; however, they also indicated a significant influence of the season (i.e. calving or weaning periods) on transmission risk. All experts thought that MERS-CoV-infected dromedaries and asymptomatic humans play the most important role in infection of humans, with bats and other species presenting a possible, but yet undefined, risk. Direct and indirect contact of humans with dromedary camels were identified as the most risky types of contact, when compared to consumption of various camel products, with estimated "most likely" incidence risks of at least 22 and 13% for direct and indirect contact, respectively. The results of our study are consistent with available, yet very limited, published data regarding the potential pathways of transmission of MERS-CoV at the animal-human interface. These results identify key knowledge gaps and highlight the need for more comprehensive, yet focused research to be conducted to better understand transmission between dromedaries and humans.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051548 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2016.00088 | DOI Listing |
Microbiol Mol Biol Rev
December 2024
Department of Microbiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
SUMMARYHuman coronaviruses cause a range of respiratory diseases, from the common cold (HCoV-229E, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-OC43, and SARS-CoV-2) to lethal pneumonia (SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV). Coronavirus interactions with host innate immune antiviral responses are an important determinant of disease outcome. This review compares the host's innate response to different human coronaviruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Virol
December 2024
State Key Laboratory of Virology, Taikang Center for Life and Medical Sciences, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Unlabelled: Viral immunosuppression substantially affects the host immune response of infected patients and the protective efficacy of vaccines. Here, we found that the spike (S) protein, the major vaccine antigen of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), strongly suppresses host innate immunity by inhibiting interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) expression through both S1 and S2 subunits. Mechanistically, the S protein inhibited the formation of the classic interferon-stimulated gene factor 3 (ISGF3) complex composed of STAT1, STAT2, and IRF9 by competing with STAT2 for binding to IRF9, thereby impeding the transcription of ISGs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
December 2024
WHO Health Emergencies Programme, WHO Country Office in Yemen, Sana'a, Yemen.
Background: The international health emergency caused by the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus demonstrated the expanding usefulness of multi-country disease outbreak information gathered through event-based surveillance (EBS) as an extension beyond the main purposes of early warning, alert, and response (EWAR). In this article, previous events of multi-country outbreaks from 2010-2019 were reviewed for how EBS, within an expanded sphere of Epidemic Intelligence (EI), may help to enhance the understanding of outbreaks for a more timely and nuanced, multiple-point trigger approach to health emergencies.
Methods: The public, open-source database of ProMed reports were reviewed for the date of first notification on major outbreaks of infectious diseases and then compared for subsequent dates of any new, exceptional epidemiological findings (novel host, settings, transmission characteristics) as a determining factor for prolonged, multi-country events later acknowledged on the WHO disease outbreak news (DON) website, or by peer-reviewed journal publication if no related DON information became available.
BMC Genom Data
December 2024
School of Science, Constructor University, 28759, Bremen, Germany.
Objectives: SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein furin cleavage site is a key determinant of SARS-CoV-2 virulence and COVID-19 pathogencity. Located at the S1/S2 junction, it is unique among sarbecoviruses but frequently found among betacoronaviruses. Recent evidence suggests that this site includes two additional functional motifs: a pat7 nuclear localization signal and two flanking O-glycosites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMil Med Res
December 2024
Department of Critical Care Medicine, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, China.
Sepsis, characterized as life-threatening organ dysfunction resulting from dysregulated host responses to infection, remains a significant challenge in clinical practice. Despite advancements in understanding host-bacterial interactions, molecular responses, and therapeutic approaches, the mortality rate associated with sepsis has consistently ranged between 10 and 16%. This elevated mortality highlights critical gaps in our comprehension of sepsis etiology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!