The first case of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) was reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Since then, all cases of MERS have been linked to travel to, or residence in, countries in and near the Arabian Peninsula, including the large outbreak occurred in the Republic of Korea in 2015. The disease is caused by a novel coronavirus named MERS-CoV.

The clinical symptoms of MERS-CoV infection range from asymptomatic or mild respiratory symptoms to severe acute respiratory disease and death in nearly 40% of infected patients. Typical presentation of the disease includes fever, cough and shortness of breath. Pneumonia and gastrointestinal symptoms are also common findings.


VIASURE MERS Coronavirus Real Time PCR Detection Kit is designed for the diagnosis of MERS Coronavirus in clinical samples.

The detection is done in one step real time RT format where the reverse transcription and the subsequent amplification of specific target sequence occur in the same reaction well. The isolated RNA target is transcribed generating complementary DNA by reverse transcriptase which is followed by the amplification of a conserved region upstream of the E gene (upE) (MERS Coronavirus 1), and the open reading frame 1a (ORF 1a) (MERS Coronavirus 2), using specific primers and a fluorescent–labelled probe.