# 7963
The big infectious disease news yesterday was the preliminary finding of a MERS-like infection in a sick camel owned by a Saudi who is presently being treated for the MERS coronavirus (see KSA MERS Investigation: Testing The Beast, Not The Beauty).
Additional testing is underway to determine just how closely the virus in the camel matches the virus in the patient. If the genetic sequences prove closely related, then we may have an important new clue in how this virus is being spread.
Last Night Robert Roos of CIDRAP NEWS put together an excellent overview of the story, and what we know so far.
Reports: MERS-CoV found in Saudi patient's camel
Robert Roos | News Editor | CIDRAP News
|
Nov 11, 2013
iStockphoto
Media reports today said the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been detected in a camel linked to a human case in Saudi Arabia. If confirmed, the finding will mark the first time the virus has clearly been found in an animal and will strengthen the suspicion that camels are a source of human infections.
Dr. Ian Mackay weighs in as well, with an entry on his Virology Down Under blog, where he raises a number of intriguing questions including (assuming the human and camel viruses match), who infected whom?
Follow the link below to read:
Camel cough, coronavirus caught? [UPDATED]
Are camels the main source of human infection
by the Middles East respiratory syndrome
coronavirus (MERS-CoV)?I awoke to find the world has learned of a camel that tested positive using a Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus PCR. According to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Health announcement (on the Arabic language and not English language page), the camel was owned by by the a recent case (43M from Jeddah, reported on 7th of Nov- FluTracker's #156) and was showing signs of disease. The fact that it was ill may suggest it was the sources, but we don't yet know which illness came first, the camel or the man. We do know (from CIDRAP/WHO) that 43M became ill on Oct-27 and has been in hospital since Nov-3.
We discussed reverse zoonosis – the passing of an infection from a human to another species – a little over a year ago in Companion Animals & Reverse Zoonosis. While it doesn’t get much attention, it probably happens more often than we know.
During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the virus – which evolved in pigs – jumped to humans and spread rapidly. But humans also passed it on to new swine herds around the world, and to other animals as well. We saw reports of dogs, cats, turkeys, cheetahs, and pet ferrets falling ill with the virus (see US: Dog Tests Positive For H1N1, USDA Listing Of Animals With H1N1).
It is one of the reasons why people who work with, or raise swine are urged to get the seasonal flu vaccine each year, to prevent infecting pig herds with humanized flu strains – a possible route to creating a new reassortant flu virus. The following comes from the CDC.
Influenza Vaccination of Swine Workers
(Excerpt)
However, influenza vaccination of swine workers – regardless of whether or not they have a high risk condition – is important to reduce the risk of transmitting seasonal influenza viruses from ill people to pigs. Seasonal influenza vaccination of workers might also decrease the potential for people or pigs to become co-infected with both human and swine influenza viruses. Such dual infections could result in genetic reassortment of the two different influenza A viruses and lead to a new influenza A virus that has a different combination of genes, and which could pose significant public health concern. Employers should consider providing swine workers with access to annual seasonal influenza vaccination that follow the recommendations for the general public for Preventing Seasonal Flu With Vaccination.
While one might reasonably assume that it is more likely that the Saudi patient acquired the virus from his camel – instead of the other way around – the possibility of reverse zoonosis cannot be ignored. And of course, if the patient did contract the virus from his camel, where did the camel contract the virus?
More questions than answers at this point, but yesterday’s announcement is a tantalizing hint that progress is being made in unraveling the mysteries of the MERS coronavirus.
