中东呼吸综合征：全球总结和风险评估

Key highlights: •Therisk of MERS-CoV transmissionremainsmoderateat both the regional and global levels, reflecting ongoing but restricted patterns of circulation•Following an abrupt decline in reported MERS human cases in 2020,notifications have continued in a sporadic and geographically restricted manner, predominantly within the Middle East region •WHO expects to see additional cases reported from the Middle East region, with the possibility that cases may be exported to and detected in other countries, as recently happened in France •Three limited healthcare-related clustershave been reported from Saudi Arabiain 2024 and 2025; •Three travel-related cases with exposure in the Middle Easthave been reported; two were diagnosedin France in November 2025, returning from a trip to the Arabian Peninsula, and one travelled fromSaudi Arabia to Pakistan in August 2024, before receiving the MERS diagnosis. International contact •Zoonotic spillover of MERS-CoV from dromedary camels continues to represent a primary source ofhuman infection, typically resulting in isolated human cases without sustained transmission •MERS-CoV is enzootic in most dromedary camel populations, within and beyond the Middle East(e.g.East and North-West Africa, Central and South Asia) and it is important to maintain awareness of •Recent identification of clade B MERS-CoV in camels from Egypt and Sudanemphasizes the critical need for ongoing animal surveillance to deepen our understanding of evolutionary patterns and the zoonotic risk posed by emerging strains •WHO, FAO, WOAH, the Saudi PHA and MoH held aQuadripartite Global Technical Meeting on MERS- •WHO’s MERS case line list has been updatedfollowing a detailed case data review shared by the SaudiMoH and updated case information received from Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates•WHO’s MERS dashboard went livein June 2025 [https://data.who.int/dashboards/mers] Summary Since 2012 and as of5 January 2026, 2635 laboratory-confirmed cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection have been reported to WHO from 27 countries in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, the United States ofAmerica, and Asia (Figure 1)1. The majority of all cases (84%; 2224/2635) have been reported by Saudi Arabia. Recent MERS line list updates Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi Ministry of Health conducted a comprehensive retrospective audit of approximately2200 previously reported MERS cases (up to August 2024). This review required retrieving and re-examining individual hospitalrecords dating back to 2013 to ensure that all data were accurate, complete and internally consistent. As part of this effort, severalentries were corrected and standardized, including patient age, date of hospitalisation, and clinical outcomes. The updated datasetwas shared with WHO to facilitate revision of Saudi Arabia’s entries in the global MERS line list. During this process, it wasdiscovered that 4 cases (two from 2013, one from 2014 and one from 2017) had not been reported via the International HealthRegulations (IHR). These cases have now been included within the WHO line list, resulting in a total of 2221 MERS cases reported In addition, WHO obtained updated case information from Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, furtherstrengthening the accuracy of regional surveillance data (see below). Description and analysis of recent MERS cases reported to WHO Since the last global update published on 16 November 2022 and as of 5 January 2026, 36 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERShave been reported to WHO from four countries (32 from Saudi Arabia, 2 from France, 1 from the United Arab Emirates, and 1from Oman; Figure 2), of whom 14 cases (39%), all from Saudi Arabia, have died. Among these 36 cases, 30 (83%) were maleand 6 (17%) were female.The median age was 60 years (IQR 48–73). In addition, four MERS cases from 2013 (n=2), 2014 (n=1)and 2017 (n=1), including 3 deaths, were retrospectively confirmed to WHO from Saudi Arabia in connection with their line list Figure 2: Timeline of confirmed human cases of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) reported to WHO since the last update (16 November 2022 – 5 January 2026).Case descriptions include reporting country, sex, age range, date of symptomonset and outcome (if available). Since the last update, around 75% (27/36) of cases reported at least one underlying condition, including chronic renal failure, heartdisease, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Regarding asymptomatic or mild cases, the proportion has decreased from 22% in2019 to 19%. This is likely influenced by a revision of the regulations around contact testing in Saudi Arabia in May 2018, nowimplying that only symptomatic contacts of MERS cases are being tested for the virus. [1] Recently Saudi Arabia reported threehealth-care-related clusters, two in 2024 comprised of three and two cases each, and one in 2025 comprised of 7 cases (see d