Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jun;22(6):1086-9.
doi: 10.3201/eid2206.160064. Epub 2016 Jun 15.

MERS-CoV Antibodies in Humans, Africa, 2013-2014

Anne Liljander, Benjamin Meyer, Joerg Jores, Marcel A Müller, Erik Lattwein, Ian Njeru, Bernard Bett, Christian Drosten, Victor Max Corman

MERS-CoV Antibodies in Humans, Africa, 2013-2014

Anne Liljander et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

Dromedaries in Africa and elsewhere carry the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). To search for evidence of autochthonous MERS-CoV infection in humans, we tested archived serum from livestock handlers in Kenya for MERS-CoV antibodies. Serologic evidence of infection was confirmed for 2 persons sampled in 2013 and 2014.

Keywords: Africa; MERS-CoV; Middle East respiratory syndrome; antibodies; coronavirus; eastern Kenya; humans; livestock handlers; viruses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Plot of all individual optical density (OD) ratios obtained from recombinant ELISA testing of human serum samples for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) antibodies, Africa, 2013–2014. All 16 samples exceeding the cutoff of 0.3 and 22 other samples showing an OD ratio below the cutoff were subsequently tested in a plaque-reduction virus neutralization (PRNT) test; these samples are shown in blue, and the 2 samples positive by PRNT are shown in red. The horizontal dashed line represents the cutoff value as determined in a nationwide, cross-sectional serologic study in Saudi Arabia (6).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) plaque-reduction neutralization test (PRNT) results for 2 serum samples positive by recombinant ELISA, showing virus neutralization activity against MERS-CoV strain EMC/2012 exceeding a titer of 1:10. Titers and number of plaques (in parenthesis) are shown next to the corresponding images. Sample no. 976 showed >50% plaque reduction up to a titer of 1:20, and sample no. 126 showed >90% plaque reduction up to a titer of 1:40. No serum was added to the control wells. Note that the image cannot represent the morphology and the contrast of plaques that was visible with direct inspection of cell culture plates with an appropriate light source, as was done for these experiments.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Mackay IM, Arden KE. MERS coronavirus: diagnostics, epidemiology and transmission. Virol J. 2015;12:222. 10.1186/s12985-015-0439-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Haagmans BL, Al Dhahiry SH, Reusken CB, Raj VS, Galiano M, Myers R, et al. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in dromedary camels: an outbreak investigation. Lancet Infect Dis. 2014;14:140–5. 10.1016/S1473-3099(13)70690-X - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alraddadi BM, Watson JT, Almarashi A, Abedi GR, Turkistani A, Sadran M, et al. Risk factors for primary Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus illness in humans, Saudi Arabia, 2014. Emerg Infect Dis. 2016;22:49–55. 10.3201/eid2201.151340 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gossner C, Danielson N, Gervelmeyer A, Berthe F, Faye B, Kaasik Aaslav K, et al. Human–dromedary camel interactions and the risk of acquiring zoonotic Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus Infection. Zoonoses Public Health. 2016;63:1–9 . 10.1111/zph.12171 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)—Saudi Arabia [cited 2016 Jan 4]. http://www.who.int/csr/don/4-january-2016-mers-saudi-arabia/en/

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources

-