Open AccessInvestigation of Anti-Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Antibodies in Blood Donors and Slaughterhouse Workers in Jeddah and Makkah, Saudi Arabia, Fall 2012
Author(s) -
Asad S. Aburizaiza,
Frank Mattes,
Esam I. Azhar,
Ahmed M. Hassan,
Ziad A. Memish,
Doreen Muth,
Benjamin Meyer,
Erik Lattwein,
Marcel A. Müller,
Christian Drosten
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the journal of infectious diseases
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.69
H-Index - 252
eISSN - 1537-6613
pISSN - 0022-1899
DOI - 10.1093/infdis/jit589
Subject(s) - middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus , medicine , antibody , virology , indirect immunofluorescence , hajj , middle east respiratory syndrome , respiratory system , immunofluorescence , covid-19 , immunology , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , geography , islam , archaeology
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a novel, potentially zoonotic human coronavirus (HCoV). We investigated MERS-CoV antibodies using a staged approach involving an immunofluorescence assay (IFA), a differential recombinant IFA, and a plaque-reduction serum neutralization assay. In 130 blood donors sampled during 2012 in Jeddah and 226 slaughterhouse workers sampled in October 2012 in Jeddah and Makkah, Saudi Arabia, 8 reactive sera were seen in IFA but were resolved to be specific for established HCoVs by discriminative testing. There is no evidence that MERS-CoV circulated widely in the study region in fall 2012, matching an apparent absence of exported disease during the 2012 Hajj.
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