--- title: MERS Could Be Airborne, Research Indicates description: The disease has already claimed 288 lives canonical: https://time.com/3018735/mers-airborne/ author: Joan E. Greve article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-22T14:44:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:16:42.466Z article:section: Health og:title: MERS Could Be Airborne, Research Indicates og:description: The disease has already claimed 288 lives og:url: https://time.com/3018735/mers-airborne/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: MERS Could Be Airborne, Research Indicates twitter:description: The disease has already claimed 288 lives twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # MERS Could Be Airborne, Research Indicates > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=70045277-9c3a-4ae3-9249-f1f4a3ba19be&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Joan E. Greve](https://time.com/author/joan-greve/) ## Joan E. Greve Jul 22, 2014 2:44 PM UTC by [Joan E. Greve](https://time.com/author/joan-greve/) ## Joan E. Greve Jul 22, 2014 2:44 PM UTC Findings from a [scientific paper](http://mbio.asm.org/content/5/4/e01450-14.abstract) published Tuesday indicated that Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) may be able to spread through the air. A research team in Saudi Arabia collected air samples from a camel barn that the virus had previously plagued. Their analysis of the air sample tested positive for a strain of MERS RNA, CNN reports. The possibility of MERS as an airborne illness has been previously floated after reports said that some of those infected previously had close contact to fellow MERS patients. The disease has claimed at least 288 live, according to the [World Health Organization](http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014%5F07%5F14%5Fmers/en/). However, scientists are hesitant to jump to conclusions from these findings. “What they say is that virus particles can be airborne, but it’s premature to conclude that MERS is transmitted through aerosols,” said Dr. Mark Denison, a Vanderbilt University School of Medicine professor. “Do we still need to consider the possibility of airborne transmission?” Denison added. “Yes, of course.” \[[_CNN_\]](http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/22/health/mers-airborne/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3018735/mers-airborne/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3018735/mers-airborne/"},"headline":"MERS Could Be Airborne, Research Indicates","datePublished":"2014-07-22T14:44:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:16:42.466Z","description":"The disease has already claimed 288 lives","url":"https://time.com/3018735/mers-airborne/","keywords":["Infectious Disease","Research","MERS","Virus","Air"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joan E. 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