The dromedary could be involved in the transmission of the new coronavirus MERS-CoV. Finding out which animal is the intermediate host of the virus could put a stop to human-to-human transmission.
From bats to humans via dromedaries… It is in a way the “path” that the new coronavirus MERS-CoV could take. Since the appearance of this virus in April 2012, researchers around the world have sought to decipher the mode of contamination. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also sent a mission to Saudi Arabia to help local authorities take an inventory of potential animal reservoirs.
In fact, the researchers quickly identified that the bat harbored a virus very similar to MERS-CoV. But the hunt for human transmission was just beginning. There was still a crucial step to be taken: the discovery of the intermediate host. In other words, an animal which lives more in contact with humans and which could have contracted the virus from bats. Professor Arnaud Fontanet, head of the epidemiology of emerging diseases unit at the Institut Pasteur (Paris), confided in Pourquoi Docteur last May: “It is obvious that the source must be identified if we want to stop definitively virus circulation. The identification of this intermediate host which harbors the virus, provides it with shelter and cover could therefore put an end to human-to-human transmission. This is the number one priority, especially since there is currently no effective treatment against this virus.
According to a Dutch study published on August 9 in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, this “intermediate host” could therefore be the dromedary. This work, which reveals that 100% of the 50 blood sera taken from camels in the Sultanate of Oman contained antibodies specifically directed against the surface proteins of the coronavirus, therefore constitutes an important step in the hunt for the virus. However, they do not provide certainty. “The presence of antibodies means that these camels have been in contact with the virus or a very similar virus,” said Marion Koopmans, one of the researchers participating in the study. “But, we also need to find the virus before we can say for sure that it is the same one that infects humans,” she adds.
To date, 93 people have been infected with the MERS-CoV coronavirus and 46 people have died.
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