WHO urges: don't put camel before the cart....

..or pretty much any other animal that may, although we have no data to support it (except for bats but no-one seems to think their is much chance of bat-human spread being the main source), be infected by the MERS-CoV and acting as a source for human infections  if in fact the results from today's Lancet article are not simply a cross-reaction with a non-MERS CoV.

Whew.

Twitter tonight has had an almost constant stream of Tweets from @WHO and @HaertlG including these...

The most critical question remains: type of human exposures that result in Middle East respiratory syndrome infection http://t.co/oKnCGkvwpm
— WHO (@WHO) August 9, 2013

Middle East respiratory syndrome antibodies found in camels, yet most human cases do not have a history of direct contact with camels #MERS
— WHO (@WHO) August 9, 2013

It is premature to rule out possibility that animals other than camels might serve as a reservoir or an intermediate host for #MERS
— WHO (@WHO) August 9, 2013

.@doctorrhonda @nytimesscience @MarkSilvanoNYC Good to be cautious when interpreting these #camel #MERS results. Only antibodies found. 1/2
— Gregory Härtl (@HaertlG) August 9, 2013

.@doctorrhonda @nytimesscience @MarkSilvanoNYC May be cross-reactivity. And we don't know yet how humans get infected with #MERS 2/2
— Gregory Härtl (@HaertlG) August 9, 2013

I think those first 2 are particularly useful. I wasn't aware of how much, or how little camel contact there had been. Good to know. 

WHO also points to today's updated FAQ on the MERS-CoV - please check out the new material.

However, is it not worth being a little positive about this finding? These seem fairly negative responses given that it is our first non-bat lead so far. In a disease with so many unknowns I think today's new research holds up as a pretty good contribution towards improved understanding.