TY - JOUR T1 - Prevalence of comorbidities in the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV): a systematic review and meta-analysis. AU - Badawi,Alaa, AU - Ryoo,Seung Gwan, Y1 - 2016/06/21/ PY - 2016/04/04/received PY - 2016/05/19/revised PY - 2016/06/15/accepted PY - 2016/6/30/entrez PY - 2016/6/30/pubmed PY - 2017/2/6/medline KW - Cardiovascular diseases KW - Diabetes mellitus KW - Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) KW - Obesity KW - Systematic review SP - 129 EP - 33 JF - International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases JO - Int. J. Infect. Dis. VL - 49 N2 - The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is associated with life-threatening severe illnesses and a mortality rate of approximately 35%, particularly in patients with underlying comorbidities. A systematic analysis of 637 MERS-CoV cases suggests that diabetes and hypertension are equally prevalent in approximately 50% of the patients. Cardiac diseases are present in 30% and obesity in 16% of the cases. These conditions down-regulate the synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines and impair the host's innate and humoral immune systems. In conclusion, protection against MERS-CoV and other respiratory infections can be improved if public health vaccination strategies are tailored to target persons with chronic disorders. SN - 1878-3511 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/27352628/full_citation L2 - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1201-9712(16)31100-6 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -