The early response to a novel coronavirus in the Middle East.

1Global Influenza Programme; 2 IHR Monitoring, Procedure and Information; 3 Alert and Response Operations; 8Infection Prevention and Control in Health Care, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland (Correspondence to A. Mounts: mountsa@who.int). 4Field Epidemiology Training Programme; 5Virus Reference Department, Public Health England, London, United Kingdom. 6Public Health England, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, Southampton, United Kingdom. 7Public Health Laboratory Unit, World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Cairo, Egypt. 9Pandemic and Epidemic Disease, Division of Communicable Disease Control, World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, Cairo, Egypt. ABSTRACT The detection of a novel coronavirus in patients from the Arabian Peninsula in late 2012 raised serious concerns of a possible international outbreak. Ministries of health of the three affected countries invited missions from the World Health Organization to participate in a review of data and capacity to detect and respond to further cases. Recommendations were made for investigations to answer critical questions about human-tohuman transmission and the geographic extent of the virus. Additional recommendations were made to improve surveillance capacity by acquiring the capacity to test for the virus and enhance syndromic surveillance. Available evidence continues to suggest an unknown animal reservoir for the virus with sporadic zoonotic transmission as the primary epidemiological pattern of transmission. Human-to-human transmission, while it can occur, does not appear to be sustained in the community. طسولأا قشرلا في ديدج يجات سويرفل ةركابلا ةهجاولما ،تمصع ةلاه ،لييامدناف تاك ،ترسوش تومله ،نوارب ديفيد ،ساموت سيول ،ايسراغ اكيريإ ،رنزتيف ايلوج ،يكورلا يد نافيتس ،ستنوام نيوطنأ فياعم اضر ليع ،يمريإ يغيرس