The Philippines on July 6 confirmed the country’s second case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in a 36 year-old visitor travelling from Dubai.
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Passengers' body temperature is monitored at the Manila International Airport |
The patient, who arrived in Manila last month, developed symptoms on July 2 and was then admitted to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa city on July 4. He has been put in isolation but is getting better, said the Philippine Health Secretary Janette Garin.
Meanwhile, a person, who was in close contact with the patient, also showed symptoms of the virus and has been quarantined at the RITM. Some 200 passengers on the same flight with the patient will be under observation of the Philippine Department of Health.
The first case in the Philippines was discovered in February when a Filipino nurse working in Saudi Arabia contracted the disease.
MERS was detected for the first time in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. Cases have been confirmed in 23 countries in the Europe and Asia. There has been no cure or vaccine that can protect people from MERS.
In the Republic of Korea, which is suffering the worst outbreak of MERS outside Saudi Arabia, 185 people have been diagnosed with the disease with 33 fatalities, the government there said.
VNA
