VIRUS OUTBREAK
First Thai MERS case
The Public health Ministry Thursday confirmed the first MERS case in Thailand after laboratory test determined that a foreign visitor had contracted the deadly virus, according to Dr Prasert Thongcharoen, the ministry’s senior adviser.
Prasert, who is also chairman of Thailand’s expert panel on virulogy and epidemics, said the patient is understood to have contracted Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in a foreign country.The unnamed patient then visited Thailand and was diagnosed. The patient is reportedly 75 years old and has had contacts with 59 persons since becoming infected.Earlier, there were rumours of MERS cases in Roi-Et and other places in Thailand, but health authorities dismissed them as groundless.Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry has stepped up its surveillance of suspected MERS cases and held a teleconference with all provincial health authorities nationwide yesterday to beef up measures in response to the possible spread of MERS.
So far, the authorities have focussed people who were potentially exposed to the disease, especially those who have recently been in at-risk countries such as South Korea and Middle Eastern nations.
Dr Opas Karnkavinpong, deputy director-general of the Disease Control Department, said the surveillance system had been strictly enforced and all potential victims had undergone laboratory tests and those results would be known within one day.
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