Risk factors for severity and mortality in patients with MERS-CoV：Analysis of publicly available data from Saudi Arabia

Dear Editor,Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus(MERS-CoV)has affected over 1600 people across four continents;it has a fatality rate of about 36%(WHO,2015).Approximately 75%of MERS-CoV patients have a preexisting medical condition(Zumla et al.,2015).MERS-CoV is especially severe in patients with comorbidities.