Open AccessRecent advances in vaccines and diagnostics against Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
Author(s) -
K Lee,
Jae Hwan Nam
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
acta virologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.412
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1336-2305
pISSN - 0001-723X
DOI - 10.4149/av_2020_208
Subject(s) - middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus , middle east respiratory syndrome , virology , outbreak , transmission (telecommunications) , coronavirus , medicine , middle east , covid-19 , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , geography , pathology , archaeology , electrical engineering , engineering
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an RNA virus that causes severe respiratory disease. Since it was identified in 2012, approximately 2500 MERS cases with high mortality have been confirmed in 27 countries. Although most cases have occurred in the Middle East, an outbreak in South Korea in 2015 showed that MERS could be a global threat via human-to-human transmission. There is no licensed vaccine against MERS. Thus, early detection is the best way to limit the spread of this fatal disease. In this review, we focus on transmission, the infection process, and scientific efforts in vaccine development and diagnostics for MERS-CoV. Keywords: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; epidemiology; virology; vaccine; diagnostics.