Abstract
BACKGROUND: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is a respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that was identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. It is associated with significant mortality and morbidity. We identified factors associated with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection among suspected cases presented with sign and symptoms of upper respiratory infection or exposure to the virus. We also looked at the impact of medication history on virus transmission. METHOD: We included subjects with suspected MERS-CoV infection and confirmed cases of MERS infection. Subjects were excluded if there were any missing data that prevent the final analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to report demographic data. Percentages and frequencies were used to summarize the categorical variables, while means and standard deviations were calculated for continuous variables. Logistic regression was used to assess the risk of MERS-CoV infection among the suspected cases. A value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 16,189 suspected cases were identified, complete data were analyzed for 3154 to assess factors that are independently associated with MERS-CoV infection. MERS-CoV infection was associated with age (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.06; 95% CI [1.02-1.098], P-value = 0.004), male gender (AOR = 1.617; 95% CI [1.365-1.77], P-value < 0.001) and diabetes (AOR = 1.68; 95% CI [1.346-1.848], P-value = 0.002. There was no significant association with the other comorbidities. Medication history was not associated with an increase or decrease the likelihood of the infection. CONCLUSIONS: MERS-Cov infection is more common in male, advanced age and diabetes. No medications were associated with an increase or decrease the likelihood of the infection. This is important to focus on screening and detection to this patient population.