Previous studies based on several outbreaks in the
Arabian Peninsula estimated the basic reproductive
number (R0) to be between 0.6 and 0.8 overall
[6,7,19,20], although with apparent heterogeneity leading
to sporadic outbreaks in which R0 exceeded 1 [21].
In our analysis described here we felt that it would not
be appropriate to estimate an average reproductive
number because of the heterogeneity in transmissibility
associated with the three superspreading events.
However, it is clear that apart from those three events,
the MERS-CoV had low transmissibility in this outbreak.