AlimuddinZumla, UCL Research Department of Infection
Epidemiology and gene sequencing technologies have been used by researchers in the UK, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the US and Canada to show that the novel Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus can spread between people in healthcare settings. The work is published in the New England Journal of Medicine today . The scientists, from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health, UCL, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, University of Toronto, University of Colorado and Johns Hopkins University, rapidly investigated and defined the epidemiology, transmission dynamics and genetic composition of the MERS-CoV cluster of 22 cases of healthcare-acquired MERS coronavirus infections from a recent outbreak in Al-Hasa, Eastern Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By combining clinical monitoring techniques with state-of-the-art sequencing technology to study the outbreak, the team discovered that transmission occurs within hospitals and can be rapidly fatal. Of the 22 people diagnosed with the coronavirus infection in this outbreak, 65 per cent of patients have died. Until now, little has been known about the origin and characteristics of this deadly new virus but this work has uncovered the transmission dynamics, and clinical and genetic characteristics of this often fatal virus. The fact that the hospital outbreak was contained effectively and there were no more new cases reported, shows that preventive infection control measures are crucial to prevent spread of the virus.
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