MERS Virus Illustrated |
A new virus that surfaced in Saudi Arabia last year, and has
so far killed 20 people and infecting 20 more, finally has an official name:
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), according to news
reports.
The Coronavirus Study Group, an international team of
scientists, announced its decision to name the virus in a paper published in
the Journal of Virology on Thursday (May 15).
The MERS coronavirus causes severe pneumonia with symptoms
similar to another coronavirus, SARS, which emerged in China in 2002 and
infected 8,000 people worldwide. Gene sequencing showed that the newly
discovered virus was genetically different than SARS.
Other possible names for the new virus that the scientists
considered were Novel coronavirus 2012, or London1_novel CoV 2012, or Saudi
SARS. To avoid confusion in communication, the Coronavirus Study
Group recommended that the virus be called MERS-CoV.
“This name is endorsed by the discoverers of the virus and
other researchers that pioneered MERS-CoV studies, by the World Health
Organization and by the Saudi Ministry of Health,” the group wrote.
(Source : Livescience.com )