MERS coronavirus: “No risk to the public”
A patient who had contracted the dangerous MERS coronavirus in Abu Dhabi gave rise to public concern in Osnabrück this weekend. Many people fear a spread of the pathogen, which causes severe pneumonia. Experts at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) have given the all-clear.
“The MERS virus is much less infectious than normal influenza,” says DZIF scientist Prof Christian Drosten, who is supervising the case together with the treating physicians, the RKI and the responsible health authorities.
“In a scientific study conducted in Saudi Arabia, we have seen that, if at all, a transmission of MERS only occurs in a minority of cases, and that these almost always take on an extremely mild course,” says Drosten. Transmission chains do not seem to occur readily. “The large hospital outbreaks that occurred in Saudi Arabia last year are unlikely to develop here, given our local hospital hygiene conditions,” Drosten adds. “There is no risk to the general population. The health authorities concerned are currently very efficient at informing people in a patient’s environment about potential infections—even inconspicuous ones.”
The DZIF Thematic Translational Unit “Emerging Infections” has put in place an excellent foundation to enable rapid development of diagnostic agents and vaccines in the event of novel virus outbreaks, and to prevent further spreading of outbreaks. Following the discovery of the MERS coronavirus in 2012, Christian Drosten’s research team in Bonn developed a standard test for the MERS pathogen, which is now being used worldwide. At the DZIF, Prof Gerd Sutter from Munich has already generated a candidate vaccine which is currently undergoing trials. To date, there is no vaccine available against MERS coronaviruses.
MERS coronaviruses
Since its discovery in Saudi Arabia in 2012, the novel and dangerous MERS coronavirus has given rise to public concern. It causes severe courses of disease with shortness of breath and pneumonia, which can be fatal. It is currently assumed that dromedaries are the source of the pathogen. In a scientific study, Drosten and his team discovered that the rate of human-to-human transmission is low.
