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. 2013 Jul;19(7):E315-7.
doi: 10.1111/1469-0691.12174. Epub 2013 Mar 2.

Lack of nasal carriage of novel corona virus (HCoV-EMC) in French Hajj pilgrims returning from the Hajj 2012, despite a high rate of respiratory symptoms

P Gautret  1 , R Charrel, K Belhouchat, T Drali, S Benkouiten, A Nougairede, C Zandotti, Z A Memish, M al Masri, C Gaillard, P Brouqui, P Parola
Affiliations

Lack of nasal carriage of novel corona virus (HCoV-EMC) in French Hajj pilgrims returning from the Hajj 2012, despite a high rate of respiratory symptoms

P Gautret et al. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2013 Jul.

Abstract

A cohort of 154 French Hajj pilgrims participating in the 2012 Hajj were systematically sampled with nasal swabs prior to returning to France, and screened for the novel HCoV-EMC coronavirus by two real-time RT-PCR assays. Despite a high rate of respiratory symptoms (83.4%), including 41.0% influenza-like illness, no case of HCoV-EMC infection was detected. Despite the fact that zoonotic transmission was suspected in the first few cases, a recent family cluster in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia suggests that the virus might show at least limited spread from person to person, which justifies continuing epidemiological surveillance.

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