Human infection with MERS coronavirus after exposure to infected camels, Saudi Arabia, 2013

Abstract

We investigated a case of human infection with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) after exposure to infected camels. Analysis of the whole human-derived virus and 15% of the camel-derived virus sequence yielded nucleotide polymorphism signatures suggestive of cross-species transmission. Camels may act as a direct source of human MERS-CoV infection.

Keywords: MERS; Middle East respiratory syndrome; Saudi Arabia; coronavirus; dromedary camels; respiratory infections; viruses.

Figure

Direct comparison of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) Jeddah_1_2013 genome sequence, Jeddah_ Camel1_2013 fragments (boxes at bottom), and representative genomes of other clade viruses: 2 additional genomes from the Riyadh_3 clade, Riyadh_3_2013 and Taif_1_2013; and representative genomes from the Al-Hasa and Hafr-Al-Batin_1 and Buraidah_1 clades. A map of the MERS-CoV genome with the major open reading frames (ORFs) indicated is shown at the top. Nucleotide differences for other genomes from Jeddah_1_2013 are shown by vertical colored bars: orange, change to A; red, change to T; blue, change to G; violet, change to C. Gaps in all full-genome sequences are indicated in gray. Positions according to the MERS-CoV genome EMC/2012: fragment 1, 9767–10354; fragment 2, 17507–18394; fragment 3, 21089–22046; fragment 4, 23569–24059; fragment 5, 25349–26056; fragment 6, 27276–28095; fragment 7, 29596–29757. The sequences reported here have been deposited in GenBank (accession nos. KJ556337–KJ556340; others are pending).