Camel link to Middle East virus
Friday August 9th, 2013
The deadly new virus in the Middle East may have reached humans through camels, researchers reveal today.
The virus is thought to have originated in African bats - but now scientists say there was probably a chain of animals that led to the current outbreak in the Middle East.
Now known as MERS-CoV, the virus has been declared as unique by health officials although it is a member of the coronavirus family.
It causes serious pneumonia and has had a devastating impact on one hospital in Saudi-Arabia.
Today, reported in The Lancet, researchers report finding evidence of a similar virus in dromedary camels from Oman and also in camels from the Canary Islands in Spain.
They could find no trace of it in other animals such as cows, sheep and goats - or in animals related to the camel such as the llama or Bactrian camel.
The researchers led by Dr Chantal Reusken, of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in Bilthoven, the Netherlands, state: "As new human cases of MERS-CoV continue to emerge, without any clues about the sources of infection except for people who caught it from other patients, these new results suggest that dromedary camels may be one reservoir of the virus that is causing MERS-CoV in humans.
"Dromedary camels are a popular animal species in the Middle East, where they are used for racing, and also for meat and milk, so there are different types of contact of humans with these animals that could lead to transmission of a virus."
They add: "The dromedary camels that we tested from the Middle East (Oman) were more often positive and had much higher levels of antibodies to MERS-CoV than the dromedary camels from Spain.
"The best way to explain this is that there is a MERS-CoV-like virus circulating in dromedary camels, but that the behaviour of this virus in the Middle East is somehow different to that in Spain."
The Lancet 9 August 2013 [abstract]
Tags: Asia | Europe | Flu & Viruses | Respiratory
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