Thailand reports second case of MERS

In Bangkok, The Public Health Ministry on Sunday announced the country’s second confirmed case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV).

The minister said the patient is now being quarantined at the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute of the Diseases Control Department.

The patient, a 71-year-old Oman man, is now being quarantined at an infectious diseases institute in central Nonthaburi province, Public Health Minister Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn was quoted by the Nation newspaper as saying. The authorities have identified 252 people the patient came into contact with the man.

Of those, 37 were at “high risk” of contracting the virus, the ministry said, without giving further details.

These include 218 passengers and crews of the same flight with the patient, his relative who traveled with him, a taxi driver, one hotel staff and 30 hospital staffers.

It is the second recorded case of the virus in a kingdom which is visited by millions of people each year and is a hub for medical tourism.

To date, the World Health Organization says they have been notified of 1,626 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV (globally), including 586 deaths.

They will be monitored for possible infection for at least 14 days, the ministry said.

Thailand’s first MERS case was a 75-year-old Omani man who was hospitalized last June and released several weeks later after recovering. The disease did not spread to others.

South Korea was hit hard by an outbreak in 2015 which killed 36 people and caused panic across Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

Typical symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath.

It was first found in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012, and most cases reported since the disease’s discovery have also been in the Middle East.