Clinical Characteristics of Two Human to Human Transmitted Coronaviruses: Corona Virus Disease 2019 versus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

  1. Ping Xu
  2. Guo-Dong Sun
  3. Zhi-Zhong Li

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Abstract

After the outbreak of the middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS) worldwide in 2012. Currently, a novel human coronavirus has caused a major disease outbreak, and named corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The emergency of MRES-COV and COVID-19 has caused global panic and threatened health security. Unfortunately, the similarities and differences between the two coronavirus diseases remain to be unknown. The aim of this study, therefore, is to perform a systematic review to compare epidemiological, clinical and laboratory features of COVID-19 and MERS-COV population. We searched PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials database to identify potential studies reported COVID-19 or MERS-COV. Epidemiological, clinical and laboratory outcomes, the admission rate of intensive cure unit (ICU), discharge rate and fatality rate were evaluated using GraphPad Prism software. Thirty-two studies involving 3770 patients (COVID-19 = 1062, MERS-COV = 2708) were included in this study. The present study revealed that compared with COVID-19 population, MERS-COV population had a higher rate of ICU admission, discharge and fatality and longer incubation time. It pointed out that fever, cough and generalised weakness and myalgia were main clinical manifestations of both COVID-19 and MERS-COV, whereas ARDS was main complication. The most effective drug for MERS-COV is ribavirin and interferon.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.03.08.20032821: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Search strategy: A comprehensive and systematic search was performed using PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials database up to 26 February 2020.
    PubMed
    suggested: (PubMed, RRID:SCR_004846)
    EMBASE
    suggested: (EMBASE, RRID:SCR_001650)
    Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials
    suggested: (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, RRID:SCR_006576)
    Quality Assessment: The quality assessment of included studies was performed through the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale (NOS), as recommended by the Cochrane Non-Randomized Studies [41].
    Cochrane Non-Randomized Studies
    suggested: None
    Statistical Analysis: All statistical analyses and graphs were generated and plotted using GraphPad Prism version 7.00 software (GraphPad Software Inc).
    GraphPad Prism
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)
    GraphPad
    suggested: (GraphPad Prism, RRID:SCR_002798)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    This study has several limitations. First, many patients infected by COVID-19 remained to be hospitalized at the time of manuscript submission, leading to the unavailable of some data. Second, the follow-up time of COVID-19 population is too short to get related data from long-term observations of this disease. Third, finding of statistical tests and p values between COVID-19 and MERS-COV populations should be interpreted with caution. Fourth, the number of MERS-COV patients treated by drugs is small, careful understanding is needed for the cure rate of drug for this disease. Finally, as COVID-19 is still developing around the world and remains to have many unknowns, the results of this study are staged and need to be carefully understood. More large-sample, multicentre, high-quality research should be performed to update this study.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We found bar graphs of continuous data. We recommend replacing bar graphs with more informative graphics, as many different datasets can lead to the same bar graph. The actual data may suggest different conclusions from the summary statistics. For more information, please see Weissgerber et al (2015).

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.03.08.20032821v1 on medRxiv