Recent discoveries of novel human coronaviruses

Following the high-profile publicity of SARS outbreaks, there has been a renewed interest in coronaviruses among virologists. For many years, scientists knew about only two human coronaviruses (HCoV-229E and HCoV-OC43). The discovery of SARS-CoV added a third human coronavirus.
By the end of 2004, three independent research labs reported the discovery of a fourth human coronavirus. It has been named NL63, NL, and the New Haven coronavirus by different research groups. The three labs are still arguing over which one discovered the virus first and has the right to name it.
Early in 2005, a research team at the University of Hong Kong reported finding a fifth human coronavirus in two patients with pneumonia. They named it Human coronavirus HKU1.
In September 2012, what is believed to be a sixth new type of coronavirus, tentatively referred to as Novel Coronavirus 2012, being like SARS (but still distinct from it and from the common-cold coronavirus) was discovered in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The World Health Organisation has accordingly issued a global alert and an interim case definition to help countries to strengthen health protection measures against it. The WHO update on 28 September 2012 said that the virus did not seem to pass easily from person to person. However, on May 12, 2013, a case of contamination from human to human in France was confirmed by the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. In addition, cases of person-to-person transmission have been reported by the Ministry of Health in Tunisia. Two confirmed cases seem to have caught the disease from their late father, who became ill after a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. So far there have been twenty-two cases and ten deaths in eastern Saudi Arabia. After the Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre sequenced the virus, the virus was given a new name, Human Corona Virus-Erasmus Medical Centre (HCoV-EMC). The final name for the virus is: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

Listing of human coronaviruses

1. HCoV-229E
2. HCoV-OC43
3. SARS-CoV
4. Human Coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63, New Haven coronavirus)
5. Human coronavirus HKU1
6. Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), previously known as Novel coronavirus 2012 and HCoV-EMC