An updated review on MERS

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a disease caused by the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Related Coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The high fatality rate of the first MERS outbreak in 2012 raised interest in MERS, even though the outbreak was essentially contained in the Arabian Peninsula. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, interest in MERS decreased as the research was focusing on Covid-19 (caused by a related coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2). However, its relevance is increasing again as we understand the potential of coronaviruses and MERS in particular to cause future outbreaks. MERS-CoV [Masters & Perlman 2013; Zumla et al. 2015; Arabi et al. 2017; Memish et al. 2020] and other Coronaviruses [Perlman & Peiris 2023] are very well studied but knowledge gaps remain. Here, I review the up to date literature on MERS-CoV.