As per the reports, the mortality rate of MERS is comparatively higher than that of SARS.
A possible treatment for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been discussed in a recent article published in Nature Medicine.
A monkey model has been utilized in the study, putting into use the rhesus macaque, being the only animal model that could be infected and expected to show a varied string of symptoms, ranging from acute to widespread.
The researchers used a combination of interferon and ribavirin in order to reduce or curb the onset of breathing abnormalities as well as pneumonia. The combination of these two elements further resulted in less copies of the viral genome and noticibly reduced inflammation in the lungs and all throughout the body.
As stated by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), the above stated monkey model is significantly useful for research as the clinical symptoms of the coronavirus probably appear in a span of 24 hours of infection. The symptoms that are presented are a bit similar to the ones that appear in human cases of MERS-CoV.
The model was inititated by researchers at NIAID using coronavirus samples that were obtained from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands.
Right from the date of this article, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have noted that there have been seen 108 cases of MERS-CoV, 50 of which have led to death. As per the reports the majority of the cases i.e. arround 86, have been noticed in Saudi Arabia and almost all of them have been linked to four countries within or nearby the Arabian Peninsula.
Knowing MERS closely:<\strong>
MERS is basically a coronavirus belonging to the same family as SARS.
As stated in the Conversation, there have come up many concerns that MERS could be the possible source of the next global pandemic.
As per the study, a 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was reported of infecting more than 8,000 people and killed almost 800.
MERS suddenly came into existence and started infecting people in September 2012. With 50 deaths in only 108 cases, the mortality rate is visibly higher than that of SARS, as reported by the World Health Organisation.
