Serologic responses of 42 MERS-coronavirus-infected patients according to the disease severity

We evaluated serologic response of 42 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)-infected patients according to 4 severity groups: asymptomatic infection (Group 0), symptomatic infection without pneumonia (Group 1), pneumonia without respiratory failure (Group 2), and pneumonia progressing to respiratory failure (Group 3). None of the Group 0 patients showed seroconversion, while the seroconversion rate gradually increased with increasing disease severity (0.0%, 60.0%, 93.8%, and 100% in Group 0, 1, 2, 3, respectively; P = 0.001). Group 3 patients showed delayed increment of antibody titers during the fourth week, while Group 2 patients showed robust increment of antibody titer during the third week. Among patients having pneumonia, 75% of deceased patients did not show seroconversion by the third week, while 100% of the survived patients were seroconverted (P = 0.003).