Table 1 Baseline Characteristics of patients with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and patients with Non-MERS Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) at the time of diagnosis

Age-years (Mean ± SD)

(44.99 ± 12.95)

(50.04 ± 13.64)

0.31

Male gender

56 (71.8%)

34 (59.6%)

0.14

Nationality-Saudi

56 (71.8%)

34 (59.6%)

0.14

ICU admission

36 (46.2%)

32 (57.1%)

0.20

Mechanically ventilated

26 (33.3%)^c

26 (45.6%)

0.10

Health care worker

20 (25.6%)

2 (3.5%)

< 0.01

Presence of comorbidity (one or more)

45 (63.4%)

44 (91.7%)

< 0.01

 Diabetes

29 (37.2%)

28 (50.9%)

0.12

 Hypertension

29 (37.2%)

29 (51.8%)

0.09

 Respiratory disease

2 (2.6%)

0

0.33

 Cardiovascular disease

10 (12.8%)

19 (33.9%)

< 0.01

 Neurological disease

4 (5.1%)

12 (21.4%)

< 0.01

 Renal disease

9 (11.5%)

15 (26.8%)

0.02

  Hemodialysis

3 (3.9%)

3 (5.4%)

0.70

 Chronic liver disease

0

7 (12.5%)

< 0.01

Immunocompromised^a

6 (7.7%)

20 (35.7%)

< 0.01

Current smoker or history of smoking

26 (33.3%)

11 (19.6%)

0.08

Time to interview after illness –month (Mean ± SD)

(13.79 ± 3.43)

(25.32 ± 7.54)

< 0.01

Returned to original work at the time of interview

44 (88%)^b

17 (73.9%)

0.17