[A novel coronavirus, MERS-CoV].
A novel human coronavirus was identified in Saudi Arabia and Qatar as the causative agent of severe acute respiratory diseases in 2012. The virus was termed Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and is taken notice of important coronavirus caused severe diseases to human after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus. There is a lot of unknown characterization regarding MERS-CoV because of less than one year after finding the first case. MERS-CoV was related to the 2C betacoronavirus clade and is closely related to Tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4 and Pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5. Thus, bats are thought to be natural hosts of this virus. Recently, there were reports supposed to be cases of human to human infection. There are growing concerns about spread of infection.
Research and Education Center for Prevention of Global Infectious Diseases of Animal, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology.
Tetsuya
T
Mizutani
D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000821:virology; D017934:Coronavirus / Q000235:genetics; D018352:Coronavirus Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; D015047:Zoonoses