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MERS circulates differently in the body than SARS
Researchers in Germany have performed the first viral load profile in a patient with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection, finding that the virus has shedding patterns that differ from the shedding patterns of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.
They performed the analysis on the fifth documented patient with Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, a 73-year-old man from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He was admitted to a facility in Munich on the 11th day of a severe acute respiratory infection. He died of septic shock on the 18th day of illness. The researchers quantified the virus in respiratory, blood, fecal and urine samples, and reported the findings in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Viral loads were highest in the lower respiratory tract, which reinforces WHO’s previous recommendation that lower respiratory tract specimens be used for diagnosis when possible. The researchers also found that there were low viral loads in the urine and fecal samples. The low concentration in the fecal sample suggests the virus circulates differently in the body than the SARS coronavirus, which was typically found in higher concentrations in stool.
“Laboratory data like these are critical to reach recommendations for diagnostics, to make projections about the prognosis of the patient, as well as to estimate infection risks,” Christian Drosten, MD, of the Institute of Virology at University of Bonn Medical Center in Germany, said in a press release. “In the absence of qualitative laboratory data from well-documented MERS cases, most of these considerations were up to now made upon an assumed analogy to SARS. However, we’re finding that certain elementary traits of the MERS virus appear to be different from SARS.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.