New findings about MERS-CoV virus cause many people to worry

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) can be transmitted from person to person through the intestinal tract, not just through the air as it has been reported until now. This is the finding of a new study published November 15.

Human intestinal tract can also be a route of MERS-CoV infection.

In the work published in the American Advances magazine, Yuen Kwok-yung's research group, a microbiologist at Hong Kong University (China), studied how MERS-CoV virus infects cells. intestine in humans and mouse models. They found that intestinal epithelial cells in humans are very susceptible to MERS-CoV virus infection and even create conditions for this virus to replicate. They verified this finding in intestinal cell organs and also found evidence of gastrointestinal MERS-CoV infection in experimental mice receiving MERS-CoV receptors in humans.

The head of the project, expert Yuen Kwok-yung, said that MERS-CoV still has potential risks because of the main manifestations of the disease similar to respiratory infections and people have long believed that contact Respiratory is the only way of infection. New research suggests that human intestinal tract can also be a way of MERS-CoV infection.

MERS-CoV syndrome is caused by corona virus and was first identified as a respiratory infection in 2012. Since then, the World Health Organization has recorded more than 2,000 cases, including 710 deaths. This is defined as a human-to-human infection but there are still some infections occurring in patients who do not have direct contact with other infected people.