REVIEW ARTICLE CURRENT SITUATION OF MIDDLE EAST RESPIRATORY SYNDROME (MERS)

Wassif, Islam M.; Osman, Wafaa A.; Ghonaim, Ahmed H.; Khidr, Raafat E.; Li, Wentao

doi:10.21608/ejcs.2024.258588.1014

REVIEW ARTICLE CURRENT SITUATION OF MIDDLE EAST RESPIRATORY SYNDROME (MERS)

Document Type : Review Articles

Authors

¹ Infectious Disease Unit, Dept. of Animal and Poultry Health, Animal and Poultry Division,Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.

² Infectious Diseases Unit, Dept. of Animal and Poultry Health, Animal and Poultry Division, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.

³ Infectious Diseases Unit, Dept. of Animal and Poultry Health, Animal and Poultry Division, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt. College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.

⁴ Dept. of Animal and Poultry Nutrition, Animal and Poultry Division, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.Animal and Poultry Production Division, Desert Research Center, Cairo, Egypt

⁵ National Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology and Hubei Hongshan Laboratory, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430000, China. The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China. College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.

10.21608/ejcs.2024.258588.1014

Abstract

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was first recorded in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, where infected people suffered from rapidly progressive acute respiratory distress after direct contact with infected dromedary camels, which act as reservoirs for this disease. Human cases reached 2617 infected and 947 deaths at the end of 2023. In this review article, different points have been discussed, such as epidemiology and recent diagnostic techniques, the current situation of MERS, especially in Egypt, and risk factors in addition to control and prevention. There have been 54 publications about MERS and Egypt in PubMed platform from 2013 until 2023. The highest numbers (10) were recorded in 2019, 2020, and 2021. To decrease the prevalence of MERS in humans, it is important to reduce the prevalence of the virus in camels. The aim of this article is to shed some light on the negative hazards of this serious disease, not only in humans but also the role of camels in this regard.

Keywords