How to conduct surveillance and investigations of human infection with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus using WHO’s Investigations and Studies (Unity Studies 2.0) protocols

Overview

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is considered an emerging zoonotic virus with dromedary camels serving as the animal reservoir. The emergence of a new virus means that we have a limited understanding of transmission patterns, severity, clinical features and risk factors for infection. To address these unknowns, the World Health Organization (WHO) has provided several MERS-CoV investigation protocols. This protocol summarizes WHO recommendations for surveillance and investigations for Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection, in the context of how to use WHO’s Pandemic Investigations and Studies (Unity Studies 2.0) templates. These studies accomplish many objectives in terms of expanding our understanding of this emerging virus, including: detect and identify MERS cases, determine risk factors and the geographic risk area of MERS-CoV infection, determine key clinical and epidemiological characteristics associated with MERS-CoV infection.

This protocol provides an overview of the MERS Unity Studies protocols, general guidance related to MERS-CoV surveillance, and a figure depicting ideal timing of implementation of the investigations.