Qatar: Confirmed a case of MERS coronavirus in a 50-year-old man

The Ministry of Public Health of Qatar confirmed a case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in a 50-year-old man residing in the country. This disease is caused by a type of coronavirus, MERS-CoV, and can infect humans, bats and camels. It was first detected in 2012 and generated an epidemic that affected people in 21 countries until 2015. At that time, transmission could be controlled, but MERS could be the cause of future epidemics, according to the World Health Organization.

Regarding the case of Qatar, the patient was admitted to a hospital to receive the necessary medical care in accordance with the national protocol for the care of confirmed or suspected cases of the disease. The country's health authorities confirmed that he had direct contact with the camels.

The dromedary is a single-humped animal and is also known as the Arabian camel. This animal is a great reservoir host for MERS-CoV and a source of infection for humans.

At the moment, all patient contacts are symptom-free and will be monitored for 14 days according to national protocols. Qatar is the organizing country of the World Cup that will take place this year. This is why this new case of MERS becomes even more relevant.

“The Ministry of Public Health, in cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment, is taking all necessary preventive and precautionary measures to control the disease and prevent it from spreading,” the Qatari government said.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease caused by one of the coronaviruses (MERS-CoV), but it differs from the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which is the cause of COVID-19 infection. Both viruses differ in terms of the source of infection, the mode of transmission and the severity of the disease.

MERS-CoV is a zoonotic virus, that is, it is transmitted from animals to humans. Studies have revealed that people become infected through direct or indirect contact with infected dromedaries. MERS-CoV has been identified in dromedaries in several countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman or Qatar. Specific antibodies against MERS-CoV (indicating that the animal has been infected with the virus) have also been detected in dromedaries in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Faced with this situation, the country's health authorities issued a statement with recommendations: “A call to the entire population, especially people with chronic diseases or with immunodeficiency disorders, to adhere to public hygiene measures. This includes regular hand washing with soap and water, using hand sanitizers, as well as avoiding close contact with camels and seeking medical attention when you experience symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, or difficulty breathing.”

MERS, a high-lethality disease

In 2012, MERS was isolated for the first time in a 60-year-old Saudi Arabian patient with acute pneumonia and severe renal failure. From 2012 to July 2017, 2,040 cases had been reported. It affected men more than women, with a mortality rate close to 35%.

Typical symptoms of MERS are fever, cough, and breathing difficulties. Pneumonia is common, but not always. Gastrointestinal symptoms, including diarrhea, have also been recorded, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Some cases of MERS-CoV infection have no symptoms, although they test positive for the virus in laboratory tests. Most of these asymptomatic cases have been detected after extensive contact traces of confirmed cases.

In the middle of last year, the magazine PNAS of the United States Academy of Sciences published a study calling attention to MERS. The leader of the work was virologist and pathologist Malik Peiris, born in Sri Lanka and researcher at the University of Hong Kong, who was the first to describe the SARS coronavirus that caused the 2003 epidemic.

They found that from a genetic point of view, MERS (technically called MERS-CoV) in Africa are grouped separately and are distinct from the current viruses circulating in the Middle East. But they share similarity at the nucleotide level. When testing the various viruses in human lung cells and genetically modified mice, they found that both the human and arabic variants infected and replicated easily. However, African women were up to 100 times less capable of efficient replication.

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