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The emergence of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is of global concern: the virus has caused severe respiratory illness, with 111 confirmed cases and 52 deaths at the time of this article's publication. Therapeutic interventions have not been evaluated in vivo; thus, patient management relies exclusively on supportive care, which, given the high case-fatality rate, is not highly effective. The rhesus macaque is the only known model organism for MERS-CoV infection, developing an acute localized to widespread pneumonia with transient clinical disease^, that recapitulates mild to moderate human MERS-CoV cases^,. The combination of interferon-α2b and ribavirin was effective in reducing MERS-CoV replication in vitro; therefore, we initiated this treatment 8 h after inoculation of rhesus macaques. In contrast to untreated, infected macaques, treated animals did not develop breathing …