Evidence for Camel-to-Human Transmission of MERS Coronavirus.
Azhar, Esam I. Ph.D.; El-Kafrawy, Sherif A. Ph.D.; Farraj, Suha A. M.Sc.; Hassan, Ahmed M. M.Sc.; Al-Saeed, Muneera S. B.Sc.; Hashem, Anwar M. Ph.D.; Madani, Tariq A. M.D.
[Article] New England Journal of Medicine. 370(26):2499-2505, June 26, 2014.

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: We describe the isolation and sequencing of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) obtained from a dromedary camel and from a patient who died of laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV infection after close contact with camels that had rhinorrhea. Nasal swabs collected from the patient and from one of his nine camels were positive for MERS-CoV RNA. In addition, MERS-CoV was isolated from the patient and the camel. The full genome sequences of the two isolates were identical. Serologic data indicated that MERS-CoV was circulating in the camels but not in the patient before the human infection occurred. These data suggest that this fatal case of human MERS-CoV infection was transmitted through close contact with an infected camel.

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