On his VDU's blog, Dr. Ian Mackay ruminates on A model of MERS-CoV acquisition (ver1). Excerpt:
First we heard about Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)-related viruses in bats in South Africa, then we read of antibodies in camels that reacted to MERS-CoV more than the most likely (known) other CoV to infect cattle, and most recently we were absorbed by the discovery of a probable parental strain of the MERS-CoV in the faeces of a Taphozous perforatus insectivorous bats.
We've also heard that most patients have not had direct or obvious contact with bats and we also know that pasteurised camel milk products should be safe. But that still leaves many stones unturned.
So if we can assume that the most likely route of acquisition of MERS-CoV is through the upper respiratory tract and that the spillover events come from animals (I'm including human-to-human exposures in this figure) then we need to consider how that might happen.
I've included the animals above as well as baboons as they seem highly mobile, interact well with humans, visit mountains and caves (where bats are likely to hang out) and are found in the KSA. I've added ingestion but I don't really imagine how this could result in a respiratory infection, and MERS-CoV gastrointestinal involvement seems infrequent.Click through to read the rest of his post and to see his infographic about possible ways MERS could move from animals to humans.
