Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is Not Circulating Among Hajj Pilgrims

Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq; Ziad A Memish

doi:10.1007/s44197-023-00128-x

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is Not Circulating Among Hajj Pilgrims

J Epidemiol Glob Health. 2023 Sep;13(3):387-390. doi: 10.1007/s44197-023-00128-x.

Authors

Jaffar A Al-Tawfiq^{1

2

3}, Ziad A Memish^{4

5

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Specialty Internal Medicine and Quality Department, Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
² Infectious Disease Division, Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
³ Infectious Disease Division, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
⁴ Research and Innovation Center, King Saud Medical City, Ministry of Health, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. [email protected].
⁵ College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. [email protected].
⁶ Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. [email protected].
⁷ Eminent Scientist of Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea. [email protected].

Abstract

Since the emergence of the middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) 2012, the virus had caused multiple healthcare-associated outbreaks. The initial 2012 Hajj season started few weeks after the first case of MERS-CoV, but there were no reported cases among pilgrims in 2012. Since then, there had been multiple studies examining the prevalence of MERS-CoV among Hajj pilgrims. Subsequently, multiple studies utilized screening of pilgrims for MERS-CoV and > 10,000 pilgrims were screened with no identifiable cases of MERS.

Publication types

Editorial

MeSH terms

Coronavirus Infections* / epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections* / prevention & control
Humans
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus*
Prevalence
Saudi Arabia / epidemiology
Seasons
Travel