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Table 2 Factors related to infection, transmission, severity, and mortality of MERS

From: MERS transmission and risk factors: a systematic review

Author (year)

Study period

No. of participants

(Total/death)

Country

Predictors

Significant factors

Risk factors of infection

 Alraddadi (2016) [42]

2014

146 (30 cases, 116 controls)

Saudi Arabia

Travel history, animal-related exposure, food exposure, underlying health conditions and behaviors

Direct dromedary exposure in 2 weeks, concomitant with diabetes or heart disease, currently smoking tobacco

 Hastings (2016) [43]

2014

78

Saudi Arabia

Nationality, sex, age group, hospital setting, outbreak week

Older age, outbreak week, nationality

Risk factors of transmission (spreader)

 Kang (2017) [44]

2015

186

South Korea

Age, sex, comorbidity, symptoms, laboratory test, clinical outcome, phase in transmission, incubation period, symptom onset to isolation, non-isolated in-hospital days, symptom onset to diagnosis

Fever, chest X-ray abnormality in > 3 lung zones, more non-isolated in-hospital days

 Kim (2017) [34]

2015

186

South Korea

Underlying respiratory disease, cycle threshold value, symptom onset to diagnosis, no. of contacts, hospitalization or emergency room before isolation

Lower cycle threshold value, hospitalization or emergency room visit before isolation

 Majumder (2017) [45]

2015

186

South Korea

Sex, age, comorbidity, case class (HCW, visitor, patient), case outcome (recovered/deceased)

Deceased case outcome

Risk factors of severity

 Zhao (2017) [46]

2014–2015

21

Saudi Arabia

CD4 T cell, CD8 T cell, PRNT50

Higher PRNT50, higher CD4 T cell response

 Ko (2016) [48]

2015

45

South Korea

Demographics (age, sex, BMI, underlying disease), symptoms (fever, myalgia, cough, sputum, diarrhea), laboratory test (white blood cell, hemoglobin, thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia, albumin, bilirubin, aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, C-reactive protein, lactate dehydrogenase, threshold cycle value of PCR)

• Pneumonia development: older age, fever, thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia, C-reactive protein ≥2 mg/dL, lower threshold cycle value of PCR < 28

• Respiratory failure: male, hypertension, low albumin concentration, thrombocytopenia, lymphopenia, C-reactive protein

 Feikin (2015) [47]

2014

102

Saudi Arabia

Age, sex, underlying illness, week of specimen collection, MERS-CoV virus load

• Severity: older age, underlying illness, high MERS-CoV virus load

• Mortality: older age, underlying illness, high MERS-CoV virus load

 Saad (2014) [49]

2012–2014

70

Saudi Arabia

Age, gender, occupation, acquisition of infection, comorbidity, radiological findings, concomitant infections, laboratory abnormalities

• ICU care: concomitant infection, decreased albumin

• Mortality: older age

Risk factors of mortality

 Adegboye (2017) [50]

2012–2015

959/317 (33%)

Saudi Arabia

Sex, age, comorbidity, animal contact, camel contact, HCW, secondary contact, clinical experience

Older age, comorbidity, non-HCW, fatal clinical experience

 Ahmed (2017) [51]

2014–2016

660/197 (29.8%)

Saudi Arabia

Age, sex, nationality, symptomatic, HCW, severity, source of infection, regions

• 3-day mortality: older age, non-HCW, hospital-acquired infection

• 30-day mortality: older age, non-HCW, pre-existing illness, severity, hospital-acquired infection

 Sha (2017) [29]

2012–2016

216/56 (25.9%) in Middle East area, 174/24 (13.8%) in South Korea

Middle East Area/South Korea

Age, sex, exposure to camel or other animals, comorbidity, disease progress (days)

Older age (Middle East, South Korea), high comorbidity (Middle East, South Korea), longer days from onset to confirmation of infection (Middle East), longer hospitalized days (Middle East)

 Sherbini (2017) [32]

2014

29/10 (34.5%)

Saudi Arabia

Sex, symptoms, history of chronic disease, duration of disease before hospitalization, vital signs, temperature, blood pressure

Older age, gastrointestinal symptoms, longer duration of symptoms prior to hospitalization, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, smokers, lower blood pressure

 Nam (2017) [56]

2015

25/11 (44%)

South Korea

- Epidemiologic (age, sex, hospital, inpatient, staying in the same room as the index case, smoking, preexisting pneumonia, chronic lung disease, incubation period)

- Clinical symptom

- Laboratory examinations

Male, pre-existing pneumonia, smoking history, incubation period of less than 5 days, leukocytosis, abnormal renal function at diagnosis, respiratory symptoms.

 Yang (2017) [52]

2012–2016

1743/559 (32.1%)

Multiple area

Age, sex, comorbidity, epidemic period, contact pattern, country

Older age, comorbidity, epidemic later period

 Almekhlafi (2016) [57]

2012–2014

31/23 (74.2%)

Saudi Arabia

Age, comorbidity, initial manifestations, procedures (non-invasive ventilation, invasive ventilation, continuous renal replacement therapy), need for vasopressor

Need for vasopressors

 Alsahafi (2016) [53]

2012–2015

924/ 425 (46%)

Saudi Arabia

Age, sex, comorbidities, location of acquisition (household, inpatient, HCW)

Older age, cardiac disease, cancer, household patients, HCW

 Virlogeux (2016) [25]

2015

170/36 (21%)

South Korea

Age, sex, incubation period

Older age, shorter incubation period

 Cha (2015)

2015

30/5 (16.7%)

South Korea

Age, sex, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, hypertension, comorbidity, estimated glomerular filtration rate, mechanical ventilator

None

 Majumder (2015) [54]

2015

159/35 (22%)

South Korea

Five potential covariates were analyzed: sex, age, concurrent health condition status, health care worker status, time from onset to diagnosis

Older age, pre-existing concurrent health conditions

 KCDC (2015) [4]

2015

186/36 (19.4%)

South Korea

Sex, age, case classification, respiratory disease, diabetes, cardiac disease, chronic kidney disease, malignancy

Older age, underlying respiratory disease

 Das (2015) [58]

2014

55/19 (35%)

Saudi Arabia

Age, chest radiographic score, absolute lymphocyte count, no. of comorbidities, congestive heart failure, hypertension, diabetes

Chest radiographic score

 Al Ghamdi (2016) [59]

2014

51/19 (37%)

Saudi Arabia

Beta interferon, alpha interferon, hydrocortisone, Ribavirin, APACHE score

APACHE score

 Choi (2016) [55]

2016

186/33 (17.7%)

South Korea

Age, sex, HCW, coexisting medical condition, symptoms at admission, vital signs at admission, laboratory abnormalities at admission, treatment

Age ≥ 55 years, occurrence of dyspnea during the disease course, presence of concomitant medical conditions including diabetes or chronic lung disease, systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg at admission, leukocytosis at admission, use of mechanical ventilation

  1. APACHE acute physiologic and chronic health evaluation, ICD intensive care unit, HCW healthcare worker, PCR polymerase chain reaction, PRNT plaque reduction neutralization test