Abstract
Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) cause mild to severe respiratory diseases. Six types of HCoVs have been discovered, the most recent one termed the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The aim of this study is to monitor the circulation of HCoV types in the population during 2015–2016 in Israel. HCoVs were detected by real-time PCR analysis in 1910 respiratory samples, collected from influenza-like illness (ILI) patients during the winter sentinel influenza survey across Israel. Moreover, 195 HCoV-positive samples from hospitalized patients were detected during one year at Soroka University Medical Center. While no MERS-CoV infections were detected, 10.36% of patients in the survey were infected with HCoV-OC43 (43.43%), HCoV-NL63 (44.95%), and HCoV-229E (11.62%) viruses. The HCoVs were shown to co-circulate with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and to appear prior to influenza virus infections. HCoV clinical symptoms were more severe than those of RSV infections but milder than influenza symptoms. Hospitalized patients had similar HCoV types percentages. However, while it was absent from the public winter survey, 22.6% of the patients were HCoV-HKU1 positives, mainly during the spring-summer period.
Highlights
Human coronaviruses (HCoVs), which are enveloped RNA viruses belonging to the Coronaviridae family, are associated with a wide spectrum of respiratory diseases [1,2]
Nasopharyngeal samples were collected as part of the community influenza surveillance conducted in collaboration with the Israel Center for Disease Control (ICDC)
The samples were collected from 1910 patients presenting with influenza-like illness (ILI), during the influenza season spanning between September 2015 and April 2016
Summary
Human coronaviruses (HCoVs), which are enveloped RNA viruses belonging to the Coronaviridae family, are associated with a wide spectrum of respiratory diseases [1,2]. HCoV infections occur mainly in the winter-spring season [3,4,5]. Six types of HCoV have been discovered in humans: HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, HCoV-HKU1, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) [6]. During 2002 and 2003, SARS-CoV caused a worldwide epidemic, concluding in 8273 confirmed infections with a fatality rate of 9%; beside a few zoonotic cases and laboratory-acquired infections in December 2003 and in 2004, there have been no SARS-CoV transmitting within the human population after July 2003 [9,10]. SARS-CoV infection results in sudden onset of flu-like syndrome which includes fever, dry cough, and non-respiratory symptoms
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