Abstract
BackgroundIt has been 8 years since the first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was reported in Saudi Arabia and the disease is still being reported in 27 countries; however, there is no international study to estimate the overall burden related of this emerging infectious disease. The present study was conducted to assess the burden of premature mortality due to Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) worldwide.MethodsIn this retrospective analysis, we have utilized publicly available data from the WHO website related to 1789 MERS patients reported between September 23, 2012 and May 17, 2019. To calculate the standard expected years of life lost (SEYLL), life expectancy at birth was set according to the 2000 global burden of disease study on levels 25 and 26 of West model life tables from Coale-Demeny at 82.5 and 80 years for females and males, respectively.ResultsOverall, the total SEYLL in males and females was 10,702 and 3817.5 years, respectively. The MERS patients within the age range of 30–59 year-olds had the highest SEYLL (8305.5 years) in comparison to the patients within the age groups 0–29 (SEYLL = 3744.5 years) and ≥ 60 years (SEYLL = 2466.5 years). The total SEYLL in all age groups in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 were 71.5, 2006.5, 3162, 4425.5, 1809.5, 878, 1257.5 and 909 years, respectively. The most SEYLL related to MERS-CoV infection was in the early four years of the onset of the pandemic (2012 to 2015) and in the last four years of the MERS-CoV pandemic (216 to 2019), a significant reduction was observed in the SEYLL related to MERS-CoV infection in the MERS patients.ConclusionWe believe that the findings of this study will shed light about the burden of premature mortality due to MERS infection in the world and the results may provide necessary information for policy-makers to prevent, control, and make a quick response to the outbreak of MERS-CoV disease.
Highlights
It has been 8 years since the first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was reported in Saudi Arabia and the disease is still being reported in 27 countries; there is no international study to estimate the overall burden related of this emerging infectious disease
We have seen the emergence of coronaviruses, which are responsible for acute respiratory infections with a high mortality rate [9]
For the present study, data related to a total of 1789 MERS cases (1517 from Saudi Arabia, 87 from United Arab Emirates, 57 from Republic of Korea, from Oman, from Jordan, 26 from Qatar, and 51 from other 21 countries) including 558 deaths with complete data were used in the analysis
Summary
It has been 8 years since the first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was reported in Saudi Arabia and the disease is still being reported in 27 countries; there is no international study to estimate the overall burden related of this emerging infectious disease. In order to determine and estimate the relative importance of the different causes of death and the extent of public health problems, other epidemiological mortality indexes such as percentage of case fatality rate (CFR%), disease or cause-specific mortality rate, and proportionate mortality are used frequently [5]. Despite their usefulness, they often fail to calculate the overall burden of premature mortality related to a common and rare disease in certain populations [6]. We have seen the emergence of coronaviruses, which are responsible for acute respiratory infections with a high mortality rate [9]
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