About the Authors

Ágnes Sonnevend

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Akela A. Ghazawi

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Rayhan Hashmey

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Tawam Hospital, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Wafaa Jamal

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, Kuwait

Vincent O. Rotimi

Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, Kuwait

Atef M. Shibl

Affiliations Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Department of Pathology and Pharmacology, College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Amina Al-Jardani

Affiliation Central Public Health Laboratories, Ministry of Health, Muscat, Oman

Seif S. Al-Abri

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Royal Hospital, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Waheed U. Z. Tariq

Affiliation Department of Laboratory Medicine, Tawam Hospital, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Stefan Weber

Affiliation Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Tibor Pál

tpal@uaeu.ac.ae

Affiliation Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates

Competing Interests

The study was partly supported by MERCK/MSD in the form of a research grant (No. 50193) to TP as PI with AS, RH, VOR, AMS, AA—J, and SA—A as co—investigators. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: ÁS RH WJ VOR AMS AAJ SSAA SW TP. Performed the experiments: ÁS AAG WJ AAJ WUZT SW TP. Analyzed the data: ÁS AKG AAG RH WJ VOR AMS AAJ SSAA WUZT SW TP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: ÁS WJ VOR AMS AAJ WUZT TP. Wrote the paper: ÁS SW TP.