Where is MERS found?

(chen et. al, 2021)

Dromedary camels (the camels with only one hump!) are the reservoir animals for MERS. Dromedary camels are the primary infected animal for this virus, and most instances of human infection were of individuals working or living in close proximity to these animals. 

Although all viruses exhibit specificity, meaning they only attack the target they are adapted to attack, some viruses are Zoonotic. Zoonotic diseases are any disease that can spread from animals to humans and vice versa. MERS coronavirus is one such virus, along with other viruses including influenza, rabies, nipah, and many others. (WDHS)

Zoonosis means anyone that interacts with the reservoir animal could risk infection with the disease. For most of the world this isn't an issue, since the natural reservoir for MERS happens to be a very limited population of Egyptian dromedary camels. On top of that, the pattern and frequency of transmission suggests that the virus had mutated to pass from dromedary camels to humans, with most cases of infection being from camel to human. Evidence shows a poor transmissibility between humans, which means when a shepherd that contracts the virus falls ill, it is unlikely they would pass the infection on to anyone else. (Ramanujan, 2014)

Since camel husbandry is a major source of revenue in the middle east due to tourism, when the government attempted to prevent local shepherds from offering guided tours and rides to tourists the shepherds decided to ignore the warnings in favor of continued work. One of the popular tourist photo opportunities at the time included shepherds kissing their camels, which drastically increased the rate at which locals were infected. This was due to distrust of the government, but more so economical factors that encouraged this disobedience. Additionally, in areas where MERS was most rampant, unpasteurized camel milk was also commonly consumed, as well as camel urine, which was thought to have therapeutic benefits. (Conzade, 2018)