The emergence of SARS, MERS and novel SARS-2 coronaviruses in the 21st century.

ABSTRACT: At the beginning of the 21st century, a new deadly infectious disease known as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was recognized as a global public health threat. Subsequently, ten years after the initial SARS cases occurred in 2002, new cases of another atypical respiratory disease caused worldwide concern. This disease became known as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and was even more lethal than SARS. Currently, history has repeated itself with the emergence of a new Chinese epidemic at the end of 2019. For this respiratory disease, called COVID-19, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the etiologic agent. In sum, SARS, MERS and COVID-19 are caused by recently discovered coronaviruses that cause flu-like illnesses, but with a clinical outcome that tends to be

SUBMITTER: da Costa VG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7176030 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature