DOH-7 to trace co-passengers of Pinay nurse with MERS-CoV

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Health-7 is waiting from its central office for the list of passengers onboard a General Santos City-bound flight taken by a Filipina nurse who tested positive for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome- CoronaVirus.

This as the DOH confirmed yesterday that the Filipina nurse who returned to the country from Saudi Arabia was indeed infected with the dreaded virus.

Rennan Cimafranca, chief of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, said that as soon as they receive the list, they will immediately trace who the nurse’s fellow passengers were as well as their respective addresses.

The Filipina nurse was among the 249 passengers onboard Saudi Airlines flight SV 870 that arrived in Manila on Friday, August 29. On Sunday, August 31, she took the Cebu Pacific flight SJ 997 to General Santos City with 142 other passengers.

Cimafranca said that even if the General Santos City-bound flight was from Manila and not from Cebu, they will still check to make sure that Central Visayas remains safe from MERS-CoV.

According to DOH, two Filipina nurses were tested for MERS-CoV last August 25 by health authorities in Saudi Arabia but only one tested positive, the 37-year-old from General Santos City. She was confined at the Southern Philippine Medical Center in Davao City for confirmatory tests.

The other nurse is a 49-year-old from Bulacan. She tested negative as well as her family. The infected nurse reportedly stayed with the other nurse’s family in Bulacan until her scheduled flight to southern Philippines.

Despite the report, the DOH maintained that the country is MERS-CoV free.

The agency appealed to all Overseas Filipino Workers from the Middle East to undergo MERS-CoV test before coming back to the country.

First reported in Saudi Arabia, MERS-CoV is a highly fatal respiratory disease presenting an influenza-like illness characterized by fever, cough, and diarrhea.

As of July, the World Health Organization has reported 837 laboratory-confirmed cases including 291 deaths. — (FREEMAN)