MERS virus was transmitted from animals to humans
British and Saudi Arabian scientists have just announced the results of genetic analysis of several samples of the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) showing that the disease was transmitted from animals to humans.
The discovery, published in the British medical journal Lancet, could help scientists understand the transmission mechanism and outline the relationship between these virus strains.
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). (Source: cidrap.umn.edu)
The MERS coronavirus (with symptoms similar to the SARS pandemic such as fever, cough, and difficulty breathing) appeared in 2012 in the Gulf region and has spread to France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia, the UK, etc. According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), to date 132 people have been infected and 58 have died, most of the deaths concentrated in Saudi Arabia.
Professor Paul Kellam, of the Sanger Institute and University College London (UCL) in the UK, who led the research, said he had found that different strains of the virus that causes disease in humans originated from an animal virus.
His colleagues compared and analyzed the genes of MERS-CoV samples taken from 21 patients in Saudi Arabia, then combined information about the patients' geographic locations with the time of infection and the genetic differences between the virus strains. The results of the study provide a clearer picture of how the virus spreads and how its strains change over time.
Although the results of this study do not help scientists predict whether MERS will easily spread between people, nor will it become a pandemic like the previous SARS epidemic in Asia, it does help medical experts develop more effective infection control treatments to prevent its spread.
Currently, many scientists around the world are also conducting research on MERS on potential disease-carrying animals such as goats, sheep, dogs, cats, rodents... Some recent studies suggest that this virus originated from bats and camels, but there is still no solid evidence to confirm which species is the "intermediate host" of MERS.
Professor Ali Zumla, from UCL's Department of Infectious Diseases, said that since MERS-CoV was discovered more than a year ago, two major events attracting over 8 million pilgrims have taken place in Mecca, Saudi Arabia - the annual Hajj in October 2012 and the Ramadan fasting month in July 2013 - but so far no additional cases of MERS-CoV have been detected.
According to him, despite the very small risk of widespread spread and with the useful discoveries about the above gene, strict control and prevention need to continue./.
According to (TTXVN) - VT
