ArticleBMC infectious diseases2019
A case-crossover analysis of the impact of weather on primary cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome.
Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 103 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of MERS-CoV seroprevalence and RNA prevalence in dromedary camels: Implications for animal vaccination.Epidemics · 2019Pooled it
- Impacts of meteorological factors on zoonotic infections in domestic cat and dog populations: A scoping review of international evidence.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Review
- Climate-sensitive zoonotic diseases transmissible by companion animals: A scoping review protocol.PloS one · 2025Article
- Non-linear effects of meteorological factors on COVID-19: An analysis of 440 counties in the americas.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Do Weather Conditions Still Have an Impact on the COVID-19 Pandemic? An Observation of the Mid-2022 COVID-19 Peak in Taiwan.Microorganisms · 2024Article
- Role of meteorological parameters with the spread of Covid-19 in Pakistan: application of autoregressive distributed lag approach.International journal of environmental science and technology : IJEST · 2023Article
- Investigating the effects of absolute humidity and movement on COVID-19 seasonality in the United States.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- The influence of weather conditions on the COVID-19 epidemic: Evidence from 279 prefecture-level panel data in China.Environmental research · 2022Article
- Research on Quantitative Analysis of Multiple Factors Affecting COVID-19 Spread.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Knowledge, attitudes, and practices on camel respiratory diseases and conditions in Garissa and Isiolo, Kenya.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Article
- Does climate help modeling COVID-19 risk and to what extent?PloS one · 2022Article
- The SARS-CoV-2 differential genomic adaptation in response to varying UVindex reveals potential genomic resources for better COVID-19 diagnosis and prevention.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- Article
- Outdoor PMScientific reports · 2021Article
- Coronavirus seasonality, respiratory infections and weather.BMC infectious diseases · 2021Article
- Air temperature influences early Covid-19 outbreak as indicated by worldwide mortality.The Science of the total environment · 2021Article
- Association between environmental factors and COVID-19 in Shanghai, China.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Article
- Distinct weather conditions and human mobility impacts on the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in Colombia: Application of an artificial neural network approach.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2021Article
- Pan-African evolution of within- and between-country COVID-19 dynamics.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Impact of climatic, demographic and disease control factors on the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in large cities worldwide.One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMiddle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is endemic in dromedary camels in the Arabian Peninsula, and zoonotic transmission to people is a sporadic event. In the absence of epidemiological data on the reservoir species, patterns of zoonotic transmission have largely been approximated from primary human cases. This study aimed to identify meteorological factors that may increase the risk of primary MERS infections in humans.
methodsA case-crossover design was used to identify associations between primary MERS cases and preceding weather conditions within the 2-week incubation period in Saudi Arabia using univariable conditional logistic regression. Cases with symptom onset between January 2015 - December 2017 were obtained from a publicly available line list of human MERS cases maintained by the World Health Organization. The complete case dataset (N = 1191) was reduced to approximate the cases most likely to represent spillover transmission from camels (N = 446). Data from meteorological stations closest to the largest city in each province were used to calculate the daily mean, minimum, and maximum temperature (
resultsLowest temperature (Odds Ratio = 1.27; 95% Confidence Interval = 1.04-1.56) and humidity (OR = 1.35; 95% CI = 1.10-1.65) were associated with increased cases 8-10 days later. High visibility was associated with an increased number of cases 7 days later (OR = 1.26; 95% CI = 1.01-1.57), while wind speed also showed statistically significant associations with cases 5-6 days later.
conclusionsResults suggest that primary MERS human cases in Saudi Arabia are more likely to occur when conditions are relatively cold and dry. This is similar to seasonal patterns that have been described for other respiratory diseases in temperate climates. It was hypothesized that low visibility would be positively associated with primary cases of MERS, however the opposite relationship was seen. This may reflect behavioural changes in different weather conditions. This analysis provides key initial evidence of an environmental component contributing to the development of primary MERS-CoV infections.
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