Understanding MERS - Interesting Facts

Interesting Facts

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What makes this different than Covid-19?

Can the virus be bioengineered for useful or harmful purposes?

Are afflicted individuals discriminated against for any reason? Are these socially based or scientifically based reasons? (Remember Typhoid Mary)

Does the disease influence culture, international policies, agriculture, and business?

Has the pathogen/disease/case changed the way we view biology, disease, or social practices?

Does climate change, defined broadly, as changes in sea level, temperatures, and global effects influence disease emergence, virulence or spread?

Social/Cultural and political factors that influence treatment protocols/prevention strategies

What makes this different than Covid-19?

Although both Covid-19 and MERS-CoV are both coronaviruses, they are very different. SARS-CoV-2 uses the ACE-2 receptor to gain access to cells, whereas MERS-CoV-1 uses the DPP4 receptor protein. These viruses also have incredibly different relative infectivity, with SARS-CoV-2 able to infect several species, and MERS-CoV-1 only known to infect dromedary camels and humans as of yet.

Can the virus be bioengineered for useful or harmful purposes?

MERS would be a terrible virus to use for nefarious purposes, since it is very specific, does not spread through humans well, and does not kill the camel sit infects. It could be a good viral vector, however, since DPP4 receptor proteins are present in several organ systems, and therefore might be helpful in treating cancer.

Are afflicted individuals discriminated against for any reason? Are these socially based or scientifically based reasons? (Remember Typhoid Mary)

MERS was a disease that effected a largely dispersed population of people for a very short amount of time, which didn't afford the time necessary to call for shame in a population. In the americas, when we heard there was a communicable disease that passed to camel owners, I distinctly remember racist comments against people of arab culture due to the international conflict we were involved in at the time.

Does the disease influence culture, international policies, agriculture, and business?

MERS greatly influenced agriculture, because of the need for camel milk in the area most effected by the virus. Additionally, the 2.6 billion dollar annual revenue stream brought to the republic of Korea was greatly impacted due to the quarantine measures put in place when a MERS breakout caused by an international traveler prevented travel to and from the ROK. (Joo, 2019)

Has the pathogen/disease/case changed the way we view biology, disease, or social practices?

Understanding the mechanism of cellular entry in MERS and the initial SARS outbreak definitely helped us understand the way SARS-CoV-2 interacted with our cells, which better prepared us for the most recent pandemic.

Does climate change, defined broadly, as changes in sea level, temperatures, and global effects influence disease emergence, virulence or spread?

According to my research, there is no correlation that influences any of these factors.

Social/Cultural and political factors that influence treatment protocols/prevention strategies

Understanding that the economy of areas affected by MERS greatly rely on tourism might help us better understand how to mitigate the spread of the virus with economic relief efforts during these outbreaks. If enough financial support was given to the shepherds in this area, the proliferation of the virus would have had a much smaller impact, because those people would not have had to break quarantine protocol to maintain their income during the epidemic.