How to conduct a cohort study to assess the potential risk factors of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection among health and care workers in a health-care setting

Overview

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is considered an emerging zoonotic virus with dromedary camels serving as the animal reservoir. The emergence of a new virus means that we have a limited understanding of transmission patterns, severity, clinical features and risk factors for infection. To address these unknowns, the World Health Organization (WHO) has provided several MERS-CoV investigation protocols. This protocol describes a cohort study of health and care workers in a health-care setting where a patient with laboratory confirmed MERS-CoV infection is receiving care. This study would ideally be implemented as soon as possible after a laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV infection is identified in a health-care setting.  This study will aid in the understanding of: the secondary infection rate among health and care workers, the range of clinical presentations associated with MERS, risk factors for infection, serological response following infection, and routes of transmission.

Within this protocol there are detailed study procedures (e.g. recruitment, follow-up, laboratory), other study-specific guidance (e.g. ethical considerations, statistical analysis), and “Implementation tip” boxes which include further helpful details and/or considerations for adaptation of the protocol for the local context.