Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a new emerging infectious disease that was firstly detected in the Middle East[1-3]. The infection was firstly confined within the Middle East. The first case was from Saudi Arabia in 2012. As noted by Banik et al.[4], since its discovery in 2012, MERS coronavirus has reached 23 countries affecting about 1 100 people, including a dozen children, and cl...

Human coronavirus (HCoV) NL63, a newly discovered coronavirus, has been associated with acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRTI). We detected HCoV-NL63 via reverse transcriptional PCR (RT-PCR) in eight out of 878 respiratory specimens freshly collected from hospitalized children with ALRTI between April 2006 and March 2008 in Childrens Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Peak of H...

In 2012, a novel coronavirus (CoV) associated with severe respiratory disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV; previously known as human coronavirus-Erasmus Medical Center or hCoV-EMC), emerged in the Arabian Peninsula. To date, 114 human cases of MERS-CoV have been reported, with 54 fatalities. Animal models for MERS-CoV infection of humans are needed to elucidate MERS pathogenesis...

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS CoV) came to attention as an emerging pathogen causing severe respiratory illness in patients from the Middle East in September 2012. As of 14 June 2013, 58 human cases of MERS CoV infection have been confirmed, including 33 deaths (case fatality rate of 57%). MERS CoV is a beta-coronavirus, in the same family as SARS-CoV, and shares a probable...

BACKGROUND Viral interaction in which outbreaks of influenza and other common respiratory viruses might affect each other has been postulated by several short studies. Regarding longer time periods, influenza epidemics occasionally occur very early in the season, as during the 2009 pandemic. Whether early occurrence of influenza epidemics impacts outbreaks of other common seasonal viruses is no...

The emergence of viruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Nipah virus has underscored the role of animal reservoirs in human disease and the need for reservoir surveillance. Here, we used a panviral DNA microarray to investigate the death of a captive beluga whale in an aquatic park. A highly divergent coronavirus, tentatively named coronavirus SW1, was identified in li...

The Coronavirus disease 2019, identified by Chinese researchers to be the caused by a novel enveloped betacoronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus- 2 which was first isolated in Wuhan, China has been declared a global pandemic by the world health organization. The virus has several structural proteins that contributed to its pathogenesis such as spikes, membrane, envelop and n...

BACKGROUND During the last few years a number of previously undescribed viruses, including human metapneumovirus, coronaviruses SARS, NL63 and HKU1, and bocavirus, were identified in nasopharyngeal samples from patients with signs of respiratory infections. These viruses may cause mild to life-threatening infections. OBJECTIVES Nasopharyngeal samples from hospitalized pediatric patients with ...

In November 2002, an outbreak of a life-threatening ‘atypical pneumonia’ for which no etiological agent could be identified occurred in Guangdong Province, China. In March 2003, a similar outbreak was reported in Hong Kong [1]. Cases of similar respiratory illness were subsequently reported globally including China, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada and USA. This syndrome is a new clinical ent...

BACKGROUND Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection is associated with high mortality rates but limited clinical data have been reported. We describe the clinical features and outcomes of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection. METHODS Retrospective analysis of data from all adult (>18 years old) p...