DOH: CV still without MERS-CoV

CEBU, Philippines - Despite the first confirmed case in the country, regional health officials have assured that Central Visayas is still free of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV).

“So far, Region 7 is still free from MERS-CoV. All the PUIs (Person Under Investigation) in the manifest (of the flight with the nurse who tested positive of MERS-CoV) were cleared. We are doing our best to keep it this way,” said Department of Health-7 Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit  Chief Rennan Cimafranca.

MERS-CoV is an acute viral respiratory illness characterized by fever, cough, shortness of breath, and difficulty in breathing.

Cimafranca said all four PUIs they have monitored for possible infection were cleared after testing negative.

The PUIs—two Cebuanos, a French, and an Italian—were all from the same flight as the nurse who is currently confined at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine after testing positive for MERS-CoV.

DOH has already contacted all 225 passengers in the said flight.

As per DOH tracing, the Italian tourist, whom RESU-7 initially reported as “at large,” was located in Region 6 and was already found negative of the virus.

The French national, on the other hand, is a researcher conducting a study in Bohol.

The researcher’s three housemates in Bohol were also tested and were cleared as they did not display any of the basic symptoms.

First discovered in 2012 in Saudi Arabia, MERS-CoV is transmissible through close contact. While MERS-CoV is different from the severe acute respirator syndrome (SARS) that came out in 2003, it shares similarities with the latter.

The laboratory confirmatory test is called pol0000000ymerase chain reaction, or PCR, and is available in designated DOH hospitals.

In Cebu, the designated hospital is Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and in Bohol, Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital. — (FREEMAN)