“Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory illness caused by a coronavirus (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS‐CoV) that was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012. CDC is responding to an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel (new) coronavirus.”

World Health Organization

“Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a novel coronavirus, identified in patients with respiratory symptoms in the Middle East. Accumulating evidence points to dromedary camels as being reservoirs. MERS-CoV has been isolated from dromedaries, and dromedary MERS-CoV is nearly identical to human MERS-CoV. Camel and human MERS-CoV genome sequences from the same geographic areas cluster together. Both on the Arabian Peninsula and in Africa high percentages of adult dromedaries are seropositive for MERS-CoV.”

NCBI