Mers

There are seven coronaviruses that can affect people. The common cold is one, as are its more virulent cousins: SARS, severe acute respiratory virus, and MERS, Middle East respiratory virus.

SARS and MERS are examples of two earlier coronaviruses.

In retrospect, the MERS outbreak in South Korea could have been more effectively contained if the first patient, who contracted the deadly virus during a trip to the Middle East, was correctly diagnosed and immediately quarantined when he first went to a hospital emergency room in Seoul.

Using data from the known cases of MERS, the researchers found that, on average, someone with the disease is likeliest to infect at most, only one other person. SARS patients were likely to infect three others. That level of contagiousness made it a pandemic.

Coronaviruses are worrying because epidemics caused by other members of the viral family, SARS and MERS, have had high death rates: 10 percent for SARS, and about 35 percent for MERS.

“Even the researchers themselves point out that this should not cause panic,” said Roess, a professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University’s College of Public Health who has worked with international colleagues to better understand the MERS coronavirus.

Because MERS is a virus, antibiotics are ineffective.

Mers is a virus that is transmitted from animals to humans.

MERS is a coronavirus for which there is no cure.

Coronaviruses have been causing problems for humanity for a long time. Several versions are known to trigger common colds and more recently two types have set off outbreaks of deadly illnesses: severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers).