BMJ 2015;350:h3243 doi: 10.1136/bmj.h3243 (Published 12 June 2015)
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NEWS Korean MERS virus is not a mutation, say experts Dinsa Sachan Seoul
Korean scientists have said that the virus causing the severe outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome in their country has not undergone significant mutation.
camel to human transmission.2 The virus has also been found in bats.3
MERS is a type of coronavirus. The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 was caused by a different type of coronavirus.
Kim added that the virus was unlikely to be airborne but that scientists were investigating certain clues. So far, 38 hospitals in South Korea have been identified as having been exposed to the infection.
MERS has killed 10 people so far in South Korea, and 122 cases of the disease have been confirmed. The first case was diagnosed on 20 May.1 South Korea is experiencing the biggest outbreak of the disease outside Saudi Arabia, where the first case of MERS was reported in 2012. Symptoms of MERS include fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
The World Health Organization has reported that there have been 1195 laboratory confirmed cases of infection with the MERS coronavirus, including at least 448 related deaths, most of them in Saudi Arabia.
Scientists have been puzzled by the speed at which the virus has spread in South Korea, raising concerns that the virus may have evolved and become stronger. However, Korean scientists have quelled those fears. Speaking to journalists, Kee-Jong Hong, director of the Institut Pasteur in Korea, said, “We have done sequencing of the virus and found 99% homogeneity with the Saudi Arabian virus.” Such a high level of homogeneity meant that the virus had not mutated, he added. “There may have been some level of mutation, but it’s not significant,” Hong said. He added that scientists at the Netherlands based Erasmus University Medical Centre had confirmed these findings. MERS is a new disease to humans. It is unclear how it is first transmitted to humans, but there has been some evidence of
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Sung-Han Kim, associate professor at the department of infectious diseases at Asan Medical Centre, in the city of Asan, south of Seoul, said that the disease may have spread so quickly in South Korea without mutating because of the initial carelessness in handing the index patient. “His history was not taken properly at the first hospital he visited,” Kim said. “It was only later that it was discovered he had been to Saudi Arabia.”
“We have found the virus in the filters of air conditioners in one of the hospitals,” Kim said. However, he ruled out a SARS-like epidemic. “The infection is restricted to health facilities and is unlikely to spread at the community level,” Kim said. He added that a community level outbreak could occur only if a patient with a very high level of viral load were to enter the community. However, most people in that severe state were in hospital and unable to move around. 1 2 3
Dyer O. South Korea scrambles to contain MERS virus. BMJ 2015;350:h3095. Hawkes N. Camels could be the source of MERS coronavirus, research finds. BMJ 2013;347:f5052. Hawkes N. MERS coronavirus has probably been present in bats for many years, research shows. BMJ 2013;347:f6141.
Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h3243 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2015
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
Page 1 of 1
News
NEWS Korean MERS virus is not a mutation, say experts Dinsa Sachan Seoul
Korean scientists have said that the virus causing the severe outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome in their country has not undergone significant mutation.
camel to human transmission.2 The virus has also been found in bats.3
MERS is a type of coronavirus. The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 was caused by a different type of coronavirus.
Kim added that the virus was unlikely to be airborne but that scientists were investigating certain clues. So far, 38 hospitals in South Korea have been identified as having been exposed to the infection.
MERS has killed 10 people so far in South Korea, and 122 cases of the disease have been confirmed. The first case was diagnosed on 20 May.1 South Korea is experiencing the biggest outbreak of the disease outside Saudi Arabia, where the first case of MERS was reported in 2012. Symptoms of MERS include fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
The World Health Organization has reported that there have been 1195 laboratory confirmed cases of infection with the MERS coronavirus, including at least 448 related deaths, most of them in Saudi Arabia.
Scientists have been puzzled by the speed at which the virus has spread in South Korea, raising concerns that the virus may have evolved and become stronger. However, Korean scientists have quelled those fears. Speaking to journalists, Kee-Jong Hong, director of the Institut Pasteur in Korea, said, “We have done sequencing of the virus and found 99% homogeneity with the Saudi Arabian virus.” Such a high level of homogeneity meant that the virus had not mutated, he added. “There may have been some level of mutation, but it’s not significant,” Hong said. He added that scientists at the Netherlands based Erasmus University Medical Centre had confirmed these findings. MERS is a new disease to humans. It is unclear how it is first transmitted to humans, but there has been some evidence of
For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
Sung-Han Kim, associate professor at the department of infectious diseases at Asan Medical Centre, in the city of Asan, south of Seoul, said that the disease may have spread so quickly in South Korea without mutating because of the initial carelessness in handing the index patient. “His history was not taken properly at the first hospital he visited,” Kim said. “It was only later that it was discovered he had been to Saudi Arabia.”
“We have found the virus in the filters of air conditioners in one of the hospitals,” Kim said. However, he ruled out a SARS-like epidemic. “The infection is restricted to health facilities and is unlikely to spread at the community level,” Kim said. He added that a community level outbreak could occur only if a patient with a very high level of viral load were to enter the community. However, most people in that severe state were in hospital and unable to move around. 1 2 3
Dyer O. South Korea scrambles to contain MERS virus. BMJ 2015;350:h3095. Hawkes N. Camels could be the source of MERS coronavirus, research finds. BMJ 2013;347:f5052. Hawkes N. MERS coronavirus has probably been present in bats for many years, research shows. BMJ 2013;347:f6141.
Cite this as: BMJ 2015;350:h3243 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2015
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
