Healthcare worker exposure to Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV): Revision of screening strategies urgently needed

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a pathogen of zoonotic reservoir that has caused many outbreaks in healthcare settings, involving many healthcare workers (HCWs) (Alfaraj et al., 2018a; Memish and Al-Tawfiq, 2014). As of February 2018, a total of 2143 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV including 750 deaths had been reported globally from 27 countries, including 12 countries of the Middle East (Anon, 2018). Emergency departments have been highlighted as the initial site of the spread of this virus in most of the recent outbreaks (Ghazal et al., 2017; Assiri et al., 2013; Balkhy et al., 2016).
Source: International Journal of Infectious Diseases - Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Tags: Perspective Source Type: research