Government Implements Preventive Measures After Report of MERS-CoV Infection

President Benigno S Aquino III has directed Acting Health Secretary Janette Garin to carry out the necessary preventive measures after a nurse from Saudi Arabia tested positive for MERS-CoV and was admitted to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) for treatment, the Palace has said.

“Contact tracing is being done to locate fellow passengers of the patient who travelled from Saudi Arabia to Manila last week,” Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. said in a statement on Wednesday.

In a news release, the Department of Health (DOH) said a 32-year-old nurse who just arrived from Saudi Arabia went to the RITM for a medical examination due to fever, body ache and breathing difficulties, symptoms of a MERS-CoV infection.

Laboratory tests have yielded positive results, and the patient is currently confined in a negative pressure room at the RITM.

The patient is in stable condition, but is under strict monitoring by medical personnel, the department said.

The DOH also said they are tracing the other passengers who travelled home with the Filipino nurse from Saudi Arabia.

It however noted that experts believe that the possibility of other passengers on the airplane being infected is low.

The DOH sought public cooperation to fight infectious diseases, such as the MERS-CoV, that could threaten public health.

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus or MERS-CoV, which manifests flu-like symptoms, first developed in the Middle East.

“Handa ang ating gobyernong gamutin ang mga maysakit pero malaking tulong kung maagang magpapakonsulta ang bawat pasyenteng may nararamdaman, lalo na kung galing sa Middle East region,” the DOH said. (PCOO/PND (as)