April 13, 2018
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
Is MERS-CoV a threat for Africa?
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) was first identified in man in 2012, in the Arabian Peninsula. The main MERS-CoV reservoir species is the dromedary, which is found in many African countries. Why is it that they have never transmitted the virus to humans, as they have in parts of the Middle East? The first clues were published in an article in the journal PNAS on 5 March. The work in question associated researchers from CIRAD, in partnership with the IRD and several African partners, and an international team led by Professor Malik Peiris from Hong Kong University, from the Institut Pasteur's Hong Kong research pole.