Most MERS may not have met a camel, but index cases may have

Donald G McNeil Jr., writing in the New York Times  a few days ago, posited the idea that camel contact, while not at all widespread among the majority of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) cases, may play a role in the first cases that sparked clusters of infection; the so-called...

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A stroll down Polymerase Chain Reaction lane

Dr Kary Mullis, 1993 Nobel prize winner and the co-creator of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR; I have aliottle on PCR over at PCR Down Under), walks down memory lane describing the process of those very early discoveries while working at Cetus Corporation.You can check out the whole seminar here.Some key points were:PCR gets 41 million hits todayCreated PCR in the Spring of 1983 as away...

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Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus cases amongst healthcare workers [UPDATED]

Click on image to enlarge. (a) the proportion ofMERS-CoV positives HCWs who have died (red) vs.survived (blue), (b) the proportion of fatal cases (PFC; red) of MERS-CoV worldwide vs. the proportion of surviving cases (PSC; blue) (c) breakdown HCWsas a proportion of all MERS-CoV cases (blue),...

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Why we don't need to do Gain of Function (GOF) influenza transmissibility studies

Professor of epidemiology, Dr Mark Lipsitch, Harvard School of Public Health, presented his views last week at the conference, Options for Control of Influenza VIII. His talk, entitled Transmissibility GOF Experiments with HPAI: Interesting Science but not worth the risk of an accidental pandemic, noted that these experiments will not...

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Today's MERS tetrad is....

Click on image to enlarge.Another 4 confirmed MERS-CoV cases and the chart for KSA is exponential. On the plus side, many recent cases have been asymptotic  or symptomatic but mild or stable, which is a change in the recent trend of fatal cases. Of the last 26 cases, 7 have been...

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Happy Birthday rhinoviruses (RVs) - 60 years old today!

Predicted capsid model of HRV-QPM (Q=Queensland; PM-initials of the then PhD student who did all the work).This distinct virus is now known as HRV-C3. It was the first HRV-C type to be sequenced, clinically, epidemiologically and virologicallycharacterised and modelled. It was the third HRV-C...

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MERS mounts up...

In a strange coincidence of numerals, the 4th Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) report in a row from the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) contains very little on 4 cases. I use below, the FluTracker's (FT) case numbering scheme because frankly, they produce the only numbering schemes for tracking cases of new or returning infectious disease that...

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FluTrackers: Updating the ordinary about the harmful.

FluTrackers are a rock onto which we bloggers hold for dear life while the torrents of poorly-crafted, or well-crafted but just plain overwhelmingly vast, information break over and around us each day.It sometimes seems like FT posts before the events even happen. Possibly they do since they also track a lot of related detail and background information so they see...

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MERS-CoV fatal cases by week

Click to enlarge. MERS-CoV deaths (red bars) each week against a backdrop (green) of total cases surviving + fatal, globally.As requested on Twitter overnight, this shows the confirmed weekly MERS-CoV-positive deaths across time.Not updated for today's 4 new cases thou...

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The case against over-interpreting MERS-CoV detection by month...

Click to enlarge. MERS-CoV cases plotted by month of detection (global data; combining 2012 and 2013 confirmed detections).There are a number of reasons why I started my post yesterday (my time) with "I'm the first one to say its way to early to be talking about the seasonal distribution"....

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Can MERS-CoV seasonality tell us anything about acquisition of MERS?

Click to enlarge. Combined MERS-CoV cases for 2012 & 2013.I'm the first one to say its way to early to be talking about the seasonal distribution of a new or emerging virus when there are only 124 cases worldwide. Right. Having said that, I thought I'd plot the cases by date of illness...

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MERS-CoV cases continue to climb

Click to enlarge. Global MERS-CoV cases by week and the accumulation of cases.The latest chart of Middle East coronavirus case spikes by week combined with the accumulating tally of cases.This paints a picture of unrelenting case growth. The curve took a sharp turn upwards in April and hasn't...

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Combined interferon and ribavirin therapy an option for early MERS-CoV intervention?

Falzarano and colleagues write in Nature Medicine that the combination of ribavirin (an antiviral) and interferon-a2b (a cytokine key to our antiviral defenses) improved the health of MERS-CoV (EMC/2012) inoculated rhesus macaque monkeys. This builds on the March Study by Falzarano et al, which reported  the usefulness of this drug cocktail in reducing virus production in a cell culture...

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A memo to the Saudi Minister of Health...

Crawford Kilian has written a memo to Abdullah Abdulaziz M. Al Rabeeah, MD, Minister of Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.It is brilliant. Please read the entire thing. I have an excerpt below, but it is only a fragment of the whole glorious piece. Your government, Minister, is now risking a similar problem. Both medical experts and the media are growing impatient at the erratic flow...

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Saudi Arabia takes the initiative on MERS research

A coronavirus virion schematic. IanM, Virology Down Under.In what many might describe as well overdue, an independent Saudi Arabian scientific organization, the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), has called for grant proposals to conduct research on coronaviruses (CoVs). The...

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MERS cases jump by 8 today...biggest 24-hours in 15-months?

Distribution go cases by site of likely acquisition. Based on publicly available data.The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's (KSA) individual list of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) cases that have been acquired within its borders (and that's just to the best of my knowledge) is at 101....

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Flu-like symptoms on the rise in Qatar...

The Gulf Times notes a rise in cases of "flu-like symptoms" in Doha, Qatar. Dr Sameer Kalanden, a general practitioner (GP) notes a rise on cases coming to the clinic. He usually prescribes medication  or "an injection" to reduce the fever (please don't let it be antibiotics..oh. It is antibiotics). If there is no sign of improvement, even after a 2nd visit, he refers the case to Hamad General...

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Hafr Al Batin MERS-CoV cluster grows...

Click to enlarge. The red circle indicates Hafr Al Batin in the north east of theKingdom of Saudi Arabia.Apart from Riyadh's latest flurry of cases, Hafr Al Batin (Batin) has been hosting cases in healthcare workers (HCWs) since July. Lately though, we've seen seeing more HCWs - with reports suggesting...

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