Evidence for Camel-to-Human Transmission of MERS Coronavirus

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Abstract
Azhar et al. (June 26 issue)1 report on the transmission of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) from camels to a human patient. Our independent investigation of the same case led to a similar but less definite conclusion.2 Azhar et al. prove transmission by means of the cultivation of viruses from the patient and a camel in his possession, determining 100% sequence identity between the virus isolates. However, both isolates deviated from the original, uncultured virus in at least two sequence positions (C10154T and G25800T). The original genotype (C10154 and G25800) is confirmed by our data.2 Mutations in both isolates must therefore have occurred independently during virus cultivation.