Investigation of anti-middle East respiratory syndrome antibodies in blood donors and slaughterhouse workers in Jeddah and Makkah, Saudi Arabia, fall 2012.

Aburizaiza, Asad S; Mattes, Frank M; Azhar, Esam I; Hassan, Ahmed M; Memish, Ziad A; Muth, Doreen; Meyer, Benjamin; Lattwein, Erik et al. · J Infect Dis · 2014

cross_sectional · Level IV

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Abstract

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a novel, potentially zoonotic human coronavirus (HCoV). We investigated MERS-CoV antibodies using a staged approach involving an immunofluorescence assay (IFA), a differential recombinant IFA, and a plaque-reduction serum neutralization assay. In 130 blood donors sampled during 2012 in Jeddah and 226 slaughterhouse workers sampled in October 2012 in Jeddah and Makkah, Saudi Arabia, 8 reactive sera were seen in IFA but were resolved to be specific for established HCoVs by discriminative testing. There is no evidence that MERS-CoV circulated widely in the study region in fall 2012, matching an apparent absence of exported disease during the 2012 Hajj.

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