The coronavirus Mers threatens the world

The coronavirus „Mers“ threatens the world

04/12/2013

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned the public that the coronavirus was dangerous in the spring of this year. The one from the virus family „Coronaviridae“ originating pathogens are known to cause infectious diseases of the respiratory tract. The symptoms are similar to those of severe pneumonia. Especially the distribution in the Middle East causes the experts great concern, as it came in 2003 to a pandemic caused by the Sars pathogen, in which more than 800 people worldwide died. As the first pandemic of the new millennium, she was increasingly accompanied medially. The causes in the then rapid spread sees the WHO in a too dense population. The slaughterhouses of the animals were at that time too close to the food places of the Asian population. Lack of hygiene then prepared the outbreak of the pathogen.

"No new disease is under control, which is developing faster than our understanding of it," warned WHO Director-General Margaret Chan in Geneva. Officially it concerns the so-called Mers virus, which also as „ Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (Mers - Cov) is known. It is similar in structure to the Sars pathogen. Its ability to mutate is a concern to researchers and health officials alike, as it complicates the work of producing a potential vaccine. Coronaviruses have the ability to mutate rapidly, thus improving transmission capability and thus promoting rapid dissemination. The consequences of a mutation carry unpredictable dangers. "We do not know if the virus stays as it is, that's the big problem," says Christian Drosten from the Institute of Virology at the University Hospital Bonn. It was he who, together with his colleagues, identified the then rampant Sars virus ten years ago. Currently, he and his staff have been researching Mers for some time.

In 2012, the first illnesses were registered
"The virus does it if you give it a chance," says Drosten. "The longer it circulates unchecked, unguarded and free in humanity, it's time to experiment."The first signs of infection were already observed by the WHO in 2012. It has come in part to disease and death in just a few days. Patients have flu-like symptoms such as cough, fever, muscle and joint pain, which can lead to severe pneumonia. About one third of patients experience gastrointestinal complaints. That the pathogen spreads quickly, you can see in the reported cases. While most cases were first registered on the Arabian Peninsula, infections in France, the UK or Italy soon afterwards became associated with those in the Middle East. Just travelers had provided for the spread. In total, well over 150 Mers infections have been reported, in which about every second person has died. For the Virologist Drosten but also for other experts, the current numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. By extrapolation, the researchers come to at least 62 percent diseases that have not yet been discovered.

Origin is apparently in bats
It is now known that the Mers pathogen can also be transmitted from person to person. The coronaviruses can be found in both birds and mammals. Recent studies indicate that the virus apparently originated in bats. Researchers at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München have already succeeded in developing a potential live vaccine against Mers, which is currently being tested on mice. "Such a vaccine must first be clinically tested and then officially approved," says Drosten. "If the procedure needs to be accelerated somewhere, then at this point." Even if the projections of the scientists are only statistical values, a precise observation of the propagation pathways and the mutation of the Mers pathogen is certainly appropriate. (Fr)