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. 2019 Nov;25(11):2149-2151.
doi: 10.3201/eid2511.190726. Epub 2019 Nov 17.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, Saudi Arabia, 2017-2018

Ahmed Hakawi, Erica Billig Rose, Holly M Biggs, Xiaoyan Lu, Mutaz Mohammed, Osman Abdalla, Glen R Abedi, Ali A Alsharef, Aref Ali Alamri, Samar Ahmad Bereagesh, Kamel M Al Dosari, Saad Abdullah Ashehri, Waad Ghassan Fakhouri, Saleh Zaid Alzaid, Stephen Lindstrom, Susan I Gerber, Abdullah Asiri, Hani Jokhdar, John T Watson

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus, Saudi Arabia, 2017-2018

Ahmed Hakawi et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2019 Nov.

Abstract

We characterized exposures and demographics of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus cases reported to the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health during July 1-October 31, 2017, and June 1-September 16, 2018. Molecular characterization of available specimens showed that circulating viruses during these periods continued to cluster within lineage 5.

Keywords: MERS; MERS-CoV; Middle East respiratory syndrome; Saudi Arabia; coronavirus infections; respiratory viruses; viruses.

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Figures

Figure
Figure
Phylogenetic tree of MERS-CoV whole-genome sequences obtained in Saudi Arabia (black dots) compared with 472 previously published human and camel genome sequences from GenBank. Tree inferred using MrBayes version 3.2.6 (https://nbisweden.github.io/MrBayes) under a general time-reversible model of nucleotide substitution with 4 categories of γ-distributed rate heterogeneity and a proportion of invariant sites. Box at the top of the tree on the left shows location of the tree on the right, showing lineage 5. Δ1 indicates 3-nt in-frame deletion in open reading frame 4a and Δ2 indicates 66-nt in-frame deletion in open reading frame 1a. Clade-credibility values >70% are indicated at selected nodes. Sequences from this study include GenBank accession numbers MK462243–MK462256 and MK483839. Scale bars indicate nucleotide substitutions per site. MERS-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; Hu, human; KSA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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