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Volume 21, Number 11—November 2015
Research

Association of Higher MERS-CoV Virus Load with Severe Disease and Death, Saudi Arabia, 2014

Daniel R. Feikin, Basem M. Alraddadi, Mohammed Qutub, Omaima Shabouni, Aaron Curns, Ikwo K. Oboho, Sara M. Tomczyk, Bernard J. Wolff, John T. Watson, and Tariq A. MadaniComments to Author 
Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (D.R. Feikin, A. Curns, I.K. Oboho, S.M. Tomczyk, B. Wolff, J.T. Watson); Ministry of Health, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (B. Al-Raddadi, M. Qutub, O. Shabouni, T.A. Madani); King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah (B. Al-Raddadi, M. Qutub); King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah (T.A. Madani)

Main Article

Table 1

Ct for upE gene based on several indicators of severity of illness for 102 patients infected with MERS-CoV, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2014*

Indicator Virus load
p value†
Low, Ct<26, no. (%) Medium, Ct 27–33, no. (%) High, Ct>34, no. (%)
Vital status
Died, n = 41 8 (20) 23 (56) 10 (24) 0.0044
Survived, n = 61 2 (3) 32 (52) 27 (44)
Composite severity status
Severe,‡ n = 48 8 (17) 28 (58) 12 (25) 0.0060
Not severe, n = 54 2 (4) 27 (50) 25 (46)
Hospital location§
ICU, n = 36 8 (22) 21 (58) 7 (19) 0.018
General ward, n = 31 2 (6) 16 (52) 13 (42)
Symptom status¶
Symptomatic, n = 30 2 (7) 18 (60) 10 (33) 0.064
Asymptomatic, n = 30 0 14 (47) 16 (53)

*Ct, cycle threshold; ICU, intensive care unit; MERS-CoV, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus.
†Ordinal χ2 test with 1 degree of freedom.
‡Severe is a composite of patients who died and patients who were admitted to the ICU.
§Among admitted patients.
¶Among surviving patients.

Main Article

Page created: October 16, 2015
Page updated: October 16, 2015
Page reviewed: October 16, 2015
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