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Letter to the Editor

Novel Middle East respiratory syndrome and renal failure

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The recent emerging of novel Middle East respiratory syndrome is an important concern in global public health.Citation1 This new infection has its clinical feature similar to SARS but with additional non-respiratory symptoms.Citation1 This infection is proved as a zoonosis caused by cross species coronavirus with its primary origin in wild bats.Citation2 From its first identification in 2012, there are around 70 confirmed infected cases with more than half ended up with death.Citation1 Focusing on atypical clinical presentations of novel Middle East respiratory syndrome, the renal failure is an important presentation.Citation1,Citation3 In almost all death cases, acute renal failure can be identified.Citation1,Citation3,Citation4 Focusing on the course, the patients usually starts with acute febrile illness with rapid progression to severe respiratory distress syndrome then acute renal failure occurs on top.Citation1,Citation3,Citation4 This nature is a significant difference from the already known SARS, of which, no predominant renal failure can be observed. The underlying cause of acute renal failure in novel Middle East respiratory syndrome is still the myth. Whether this new virus also has the target site at renal tissue in additional to respiratory tract epithelium is the question to be further studied. The scientific evidence that support the possibility that the virus might have additional target site at kidney is the confirmation of in vitro growth of virus in renal cell culture.Citation5

References

  • Chan JF, Lau SK, Woo PC. The emerging novel Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus: the “knowns” and “unknowns”. J Formos Med Assoc. 2013;112(7):372–381
  • Lau SK, Li KS, Tsang AK, et al. Genetic characterization of betacoronavirus lineage C viruses in bats reveals marked sequence divergence in the spike protein of pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5 in Japanese pipistrelle: implications for the origin of the novel Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. J Virol. 2013;87(15):8638–8650
  • Chan JF, Li KS, To KK, Cheng VC, Chen H, Yuen KY. Is the discovery of the novel human betacoronavirus 2c EMC/2012 (HCoV-EMC) the beginning of another SARS-like pandemic? J Infect. 2012;65(6):477–489
  • Zaki AM, van Boheemen S, Bestebroer TM, Osterhaus AD, Fouchier RA. Isolation of a novel coronavirus from a man with pneumonia in Saudi Arabia. N Engl J Med. 2012;367(19):1814–1820
  • Müller MA, Raj VS, Muth D, et al. Human coronavirus EMC does not require the SARS-coronavirus receptor and maintains broad replicative capability in mammalian cell lines. MBio. 2012;11;3(6): e00515-12. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00515-12

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