101 contacts of Saudi man with MERS located

MANILA, Philippines - All 101 people who encountered the Saudi national suspected of dying from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) are now accounted for, Health Secretary Janette Garin said yesterday.

Garin noted health officials were able to locate all the persons who came in contact with the 63-year-old foreigner at the hotel, hospital and funeral parlor.

However, three more contacts manifesting MERS-CoV symptoms have been placed in quarantine at hospitals. This brought to 15 the total number of people isolated at the San Lazaro Hospital and Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. “The rest are on home quarantine,” according to Garin.

DOH spokesman Lyndon Lee Suy said the driver of the private car rented by the foreigner was also found and he was not showing any symptom. Despite this, the driver is undergoing home quarantine as a precautionary measure.

The foreigner arrived in the Philippines alone on Sept. 17 for a vacation. He stayed in a hotel but on Sept. 26, he started having cough, high fever and occasional chills.

On Sept. 28, he had difficulty breathing. He was rushed to hospital where he died the following day.

The Department of Health (DOH) is now coordinating with the World Health Organization to determine if the foreigner can be classified as a MERS-CoV case as his symptoms and history of travel were suggestive of such disease.?The patient was no longer examined for MERS-CoV as the DOH was only notified by the hospital after the body was brought to a funeral parlor where it had undergone embalming.

Lee Suy called on Filipinos on hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia to cooperate with precautionary measures being implemented at airports to prevent the entry of infectious diseases like MER-CoV in the Philippines.