Here is a link to and excerpts from the JAMA article on SARS and MERS:
Coronavirus Infections—More Than Just the Common Cold [PubMed Abstract] [Full Text HTML] [Download Full Text PDF]. JAMA. Published online January 23, 2020. Below are some excerpts:
Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) have long been considered inconsequential pathogens, causing the “common cold” in otherwise healthy people [causing 10-30% of the “common cold”]. However, in the 21st century, 2 highly pathogenic HCoVs—severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)—emerged from animal reservoirs to cause global epidemics with alarming morbidity and mortality. In December 2019, yet another pathogenic HCoV, 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), was recognized in Wuhan, China, and has caused serious illness and death. The ultimate scope and effect of this outbreak is unclear at present as the situation is rapidly evolving.
[The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) originated in China in 2002.] Common symptoms of SARS included fever, cough, dyspnea, and occasionally watery diarrhea.2 Of infected patients, 20% to 30% required mechanical ventilation and 10% died, with higher fatality rates in older patients and those with medical comorbidities. Human-to-human transmission was documented, mostly in health care settings.
In 2012, another highly pathogenic beta-CoV made the species jump when Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) was recognized and MERS-CoV was identified in the sputum of a Saudi man who died from respiratory failure.3 Unlike SARS-CoV, which rapidly spread across the globe and was contained and eliminated in relatively short order, MERS has smoldered, characterized by sporadic zoonotic transmission and limited chains of human spread. MERS-CoV has not yet sustained community spread; instead, it has caused explosive nosocomial transmission events, in some cases linked to a single superspreader, which are devastating for health care systems. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of November 2019, MERS-CoV has caused a total of 2494 cases and 858 deaths, the majority in Saudi Arabia. The natural reservoir of MERS-CoV is presumed to be bats, yet human transmission events have primarily been attributed to an intermediate host, the dromedary camel.
MERS necessitates mechanical ventilation in 50% to 89% of patients and has a case fatality rate of 36%
See also Links To And Excerpts From Lancet’s “Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China”
Posted on February 6, 2020 by Tom Wade MD
