Document Details

Document Type : Thesis 
Document Title :
SEROEPIDEMIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF MIDDLE EAST RESPIRATORY SYNDROME IN JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA.
التحقق الوبائي لمدى انتشار متلازمة الشرق الأوسط في محافظة جدة بالمملكة العربية السعودية
 
Subject : Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences 
Document Language : Arabic 
Abstract : Seroepidemiological Prevalence of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Afnan Abdulrahman Degnah Prof. Esam I. Azhar ABSTRACT The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a novel zoonotic viral respiratory disease caused by MERS-coronavirus (MERS-CoV). Several studies suggest that dromedaries are the main known hosts for the virus. Nonetheless human-to-human transmissions is not uncommon. Since the first report in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, up to 2,279 confirmed cases in 27 countries with fatality rate of ~35.0% has been reported with the majority of cases being in Saudi Arabia. Although most cases are due to hospital outbreaks, the prevalence of MERS-CoV in the general population is still not clear and epidemiological studies are limited. Therefore, the primary goal in this study was to determine the seroprevalence of MERS-CoV among healthy people in the western region of Saudi Arabia between 2011 and 2016 by testing 7,461 serum samples from healthy people using the ELISA and confirming the results by microneutralization assay. The study showed that only 2.3% of the samples (174 out of 7,461) tested positive in ELISA with highes seroprevalence being found in 2016 (2.95%) compared to years 2011 to 2013 which showed seroprevalence of 0.7%-1.5%. While the presence of neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) was confirmed in one sample only out of the 174 ELISA positive samples, these findings suggest that there might be many undiagnosed cases especially that not all exposed inviduals develop nAbs. In addition, the results here showed that the prevalence of MERS-CoV among the general population in the western region of Saudi Arabia is increasing over the years suggesting that more and continued epideimiological studies are required to better understand the true burden of MERS-CoV and to implement the proper public health precautions and preventive measures. 
Supervisor : Prof. Esam I. Azhar 
Thesis Type : Master Thesis 
Publishing Year : 1440 AH
2019 AD 
Added Date : Sunday, September 15, 2019 

Researchers

Researcher Name (Arabic)Researcher Name (English)Researcher TypeDr GradeEmail
افنان عبدالرحمن دقنهDegnah, Afnan AbdulrahmanResearcherMaster 

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