Coronaviruses typically infect one species type or those that are closely related. However, SARS-CoV infects both humans and animals including monkeys, Himalayan palm civets, raccoon dogs, cats, dogs, and rodents. MERS-CoV has so far been seen to infect humans, camels and bats.
The common cold is a virally related syndrome. It is connected to over 100 separate viruses, including human coronavirus.
MERS-CoV is a species in lineage C of the genus beta coronavirus, which presently includes tylonycteris bat coronavirus HKU4 and pipistrellus bat coronavirus HKU5. Although it features in the same subgroup, MERS-CoV is different from the coronavirus that caused the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). However, MERS-CoV and the virus that causes SARS are both similar to coronaviruses found in bats.
MERS-CoV appears most closely to resemble the not-yet-classified viruses from insectivorous European and African bats in the Vespertilionidae and Nycteridae families.
Since April, 2012, 26 countries have reported cases of MERS, with all known cases linked to countries in or neighboring the Arabian Peninsula.
Cases of MERS-CoV reported in other countries were travel-related and first developed in the Middle East. Countries that have declared cases to date include:
Bahrain
Iraq