Common Co-morbidities Are Challenging in the Diagnosis of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background and objective: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a relatively recent human disease reported initially in Saudi Arabia in September, 2012. Morbidities investigation includes a process of excluding other possible options until certain suspected cases are confirmed.

Material and methods: In this study, we formulated a model under the authorization of the Saudi Ministry of Health to accurately identify cases among admitted suspected cases depending on specific signs and symptoms. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used for confirmation of the positive cases.

Results: The results showed that the number of patients with combined symptoms of fever/sore throat and fever/cough/SOB was significantly higher in confirmed cases than in non-confirmed cases (p<0.05). Besides, the number of confirmed MERS-CoV cases was significantly higher among cases included in the study than excluded cases. It was also clearly demonstrated that fever combined with other symptoms represents 60% of the confirmed cases, which is significantly higher than for cases with other combined symptoms (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, there are no appropriate diagnostic models that can differentiate human MERS-CoV infection among other respiratory infections. Therefore, we recommend the adoption of this newly established model of MERS-CoV to short- list corona suspected cases in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: MERS-CoV; clinical features; co-morbidities; combined features; coronavirus.