Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus - The need for global proactive surveillance, sequencing and modeling

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare; Eskild Petersen, Aarhus University; Ziad Memish, Emory University; Stanley Perlman, University of Iowa; Alimuddin Zumla, UCL Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-06-19
• Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tmaid.2021.102118
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: TRAVEL MEDICINE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE
• Volume: 43
• Start Page: 102118
• End Page: 102118
• Keywords: KEY ROLE; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; PUBLIC-HEALTH; Surveillance; Epidemic; DROMEDARY CAMELS; Predictions; Science & Technology; SARS-CoV-2; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; SARS; Infectious Diseases; Sequencing; OUTBREAK; SOUTH-KOREA; Models; COVID-19; MERS; MERS-CoV; MERS-COV; Modelling
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Immunology; Biology, Microbiology

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, three zoonotic coronaviruses have jumped the species barrier to cause lethal infections in humans: the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus-1, (SARS-CoV-1), first reported from Guangdong province China in 2002 [1]; the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was first reported from Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), in 2012 [2] and SARS-CoV-2 was first reported in December 2019 from Wuhan, Hubei province in China [3]. SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly worldwide resulting in the ongoing pandemic of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19). There have been over 170 million COVID-19 cases with 3.5 million deaths reported to the WHO as of June 1st, 2021 [4]. Over time several genetic variants of concern (VOC) of SARS-CoV-2 have emerged [5] such as the South Africa variant B.1.351 (spike mutations K417 N, E484K, N501Y, D614G, A701V), Brazil variant B.1.1.28 (K417T, E484K, N501Y, D614G, H655Y), UK variant B.1.1.7 (E484K, N501Y, D614G, P681H)and the India variant B.!.617.2 (L452R, T478K, D614G, P681R). SARS-CoV-2 variants has led to significantly higher potential rate of transmission (R0), impact on severity.