New Mers case in Thailand, Omani tests positive

The 71-year-old arrived in Thailand on Friday with a fever which doctors in Oman could not treat

Thai nurse on duty wears a protective mask against Mers, at the screening of patients at the Bamrasbaradura Infectious Diseases Institute, Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok after Thailand identified its second case of the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome. Narong Sangnak/EPAShow less

Bangkok // Thailand confirmed its second case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome on Sunday after an elderly Omani man tested positive for the virus.

Health officials are trying to trace dozens of people who may have come into contact with the 71-year-old who arrived in Thailand on Friday with a fever which doctors in Oman could not treat, the health ministry said.

“After taking a taxi to a hotel, he was checked for the virus at a hospital and the Mers virus was found,” said public health minister Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn.

“This case was found quickly, so the public should not panic,” he added.

The health ministry said that the man is in stable condition and has been quarantined at an infectious disease centre in Bangkok’s outskirts. His children are also being quarantined. 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.

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

The first case was also of an elderly Omani man, who was admitted to hospital in June last year but discharged weeks later after he was treated and declared virus-free.

The World Health Organisation said in early January that it had been notified of 1,626 confirmed Mers cases, including at least 586 related deaths, since the disease was first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

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

The virus is considered a deadlier but less infectious cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), which killed hundreds of people when it appeared in Asia in 2003.

* Agencies