Camels Spread The Dangerous Virus

Camels Spread The Dangerous Virus.
Scientists predict they have the first authoritative proof that a deadly respiratory virus in the Middle East infects camels in addition to humans. The decree may help researchers find ways to control the spread of the virus. Using gene sequencing, the exploration team found that three camels from a site where two people contracted Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS) were also infected with the virus. The site was a Lilliputian livestock barn in Qatar.

In October, 2013, the 61-year-old barn owner was diagnosed with MERS, followed by a 23-year-old cover who worked at the barn. Within a week of the barn owner's diagnosis, samples were calm from 14 dromedary camels at the barn. The samples were sent to laboratories in the Netherlands for genetic enquiry and antibody testing. The genetic analyses confirmed the manifestness of MERS in three camels.

Genetically, the viruses in the camels were very similar - but not identical - to those that infected the barn proprietress and worker. All 14 camels had antibodies to MERS, which suggests that the virus had been circulating in the midst them for some time, enabling most of them to develop immunity against infection, according to the study published Dec 17, 2013 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. While the findings offer standard that camels can be infected with MERS, it's not possible to determine whether the camels infected the two men or depravity versa, said the researchers from the Netherlands and Qatar.

It's also possible that the men and the camels were infected by another as-yet strange source such as cattle, sheep, goats or wildlife, the researchers added. Further quest into the infections is under way. "An understanding of the role of animals in the transmission of (MERS) is urgently needed to report control efforts," Neil Ferguson and Maria Van Kerkhove, of Imperial College London in England, wrote in an accompanying position statement in the journal.

So "This virus can barbecue from person to person, sometimes causing substantial outbreaks, but whether the virus is capable of self-sustained (ie, epidemic) human-to-human transfer is unknown". If self-sustained transmission in people is not yet under way, the researchers said, intensified control and risk-reduction measures targeting affected animal species and their handlers might exterminate the virus from the human population buyrxworld. "Conversely, if (animal) exposure causes only a small fraction of tender infections, then even intensive veterinary control efforts would have little effect on cases in people," they concluded.