Wise men avoid sneezing camels

If the Magi made their famous trip today, they would be wise to avoid sneezing camels.

Scientists already knew the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, could spread from dromedary camels to humans, most likely through nasal discharges. So far the disease has infected nearly 1,600 people in more than 20 countries and has killed 571. At first, researchers believed the virus infected only camels in the Middle East, but a recent study shows the disease has spread to camels as far away as Kenya.

Doctors first diagnosed MERS in 2012 in a Saudi Arabian man who owned four camels. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and Colorado University later discovered the human virus could infect camels. When the researchers exposed three healthy camels to the MERS virus they obtained from an ill patient, all three came down with mild upper respiratory symptoms, including runny noses. Samples taken from the camels showed high levels of the infectious virus for up to a week after exposure, and some components of the virus remained present for 35 days.

Additional studies have shown that although the majority of human cases of MERS have been transmitted from one human to another, camels appear to be a major host for the virus and an animal source of MERS infections in humans.

The disease is now prevalent in Middle East camels. Researchers found 35 percent of the young Saudi Arabian camels and 15 percent of the adults they studied had active MERS virus, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

And now the illness has moved beyond the Middle East. Researchers at the University of Liverpool recently discovered the disease also is prevalent in Kenyan camels. The scientists found half of the 335 Kenyan camels they tested had been exposed to the virus. But so far, doctors have reported no cases of human MERS disease in the East African country. The researchers believe it is possible the virus in the Middle East only recently mutated so it could cross the animal/human barrier. The MERS virus infecting camels in Kenya may not yet have developed that mutation.

The illness causes severe pneumonia and renal failure in humans, but camels show very few symptoms other than nasal discharge, much like the common cold. The virus can reinfect camels repeatedly and the animals can become long-term carriers.

“We may presume that the MERS coronavirus is being constantly transmitted from camels to humans,” said Norbert Nowotny, a virologist from the Institute of Virology in Vienna.

Sharon Deem, lead author of the Liverpool study and director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine, said the disease is a roadblock for poor farmers in Kenya. The demand for camel livestock products such as meat and milk is rising across the globe, but the disease is preventing farmers from using camels as a way out of poverty, she said.

No treatment for MERS exists, but researchers are working to develop a vaccine for camels to reduce the risk of transmission to other camels and to people.