ArticleeLife2018
MERS-CoV spillover at the camel-human interface.
Article in eLife, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 165 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
165 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 274 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microbiome and One Health in GCC countries: current status, research gaps, and future directions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- A systematic review of MERS-CoV seroprevalence and RNA prevalence in dromedary camels: Implications for animal vaccination.Epidemics · 2019Pooled it
- Global status of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in dromedary camels: a systematic review.Epidemiology and infection · 2019Pooled it
- Article
- Bioinformatics-driven genome-wide identification of viral miRNAs in high spillover bat coronaviruses and their target genes in human.Archives of microbiology · 2026Article
- Operational zoonotic containment of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in Saudi Arabia: An implementation-oriented One Health genomic framework.Veterinary world · 2026Review
- Article
- The impact of clade B lineage 5 MERS coronaviruses spike mutations from 2015 to 2023 on virus entry and replication competence.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- A scalable maximum-likelihood framework for near-real-time monitoring of MERS-CoV evolutionary and zoonotic dynamics.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Viral threats to pregnancy: Global health risks in the era of pandemics.Advances in virus research · 2026Review
- Semiannual seasonality of COVID-19 with alternating peaks in winter and summer.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Phylogenetic insights into the transmission dynamics of arthropod-borne viruses.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Article
- Structural basis for human DPP4 receptor recognition by MERS-like coronaviruses 2014-422 and GX2012.PLoS pathogens · 2026Article
- MERS-COV in the Middle East, a one health concept approach.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Review
- Development of the coronavirus reverse genetic system: Core technology for pathogenesis mechanisms research and vaccine/drug development.Virulence · 2025Review
- Viral epidemic potential is not uniformly distributed across the bat phylogeny.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Structural and phenotypic plasticity of the RBD loop2 region is a key determinant for HKU5r-CoVs' emergence in mink.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Metagenomics reveals cryptic circulation of zoonotic viruses in Nigeria.Research square · 2025Article
- MASCOT-Skyline integrates population and migration dynamics to enhance phylogeographic reconstructions.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
105 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a zoonotic virus from camels causing significant mortality and morbidity in humans in the Arabian Peninsula. The epidemiology of the virus remains poorly understood, and while case-based and seroepidemiological studies have been employed extensively throughout the epidemic, viral sequence data have not been utilised to their full potential. Here, we use existing MERS-CoV sequence data to explore its phylodynamics in two of its known major hosts, humans and camels. We employ structured coalescent models to show that long-term MERS-CoV evolution occurs exclusively in camels, whereas humans act as a transient, and ultimately terminal host. By analysing the distribution of human outbreak cluster sizes and zoonotic introduction times, we show that human outbreaks in the Arabian peninsula are driven by seasonally varying zoonotic transfer of viruses from camels. Without heretofore unseen evolution of host tropism, MERS-CoV is unlikely to become endemic in humans.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.