Health staff to watch for MERS-CoV infections
The Public Health Ministry has said there is no patient in Thailand diagnosed with Middle East respiratory syndrome corona virus (MERS-CoV) - but it also instructed health offices and hospitals in all provinces to continuously be on alert for it.
Thailand has been monitoring the disease continuously in the three years since MERS-CoV patients were found in the Middle East in 2012, but had not found any such case yet, acting permanent secretary for Public Health Dr Surachet Sathitniramai said.
As a precaution, the ministry would get health offices and hospital staff to monitor people who have been to the Middle East and develop “suspicious” flu-like symptoms including high fever, coughing, and vomiting. They would handle such cases with the same level of caution as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome).
The Disease Control Department would provide a healthcare plan as well as flu shots and Meningococcal Meningitis vaccine for 10,400 Thai Muslim pilgrims who will travel to Saudi Arabia from mid-August, while health checks would also be done after people return from the Hajj, he said. MERS-CoV information would also be given to travellers departing to countries where MERS-CoV has been reported, he said.
As of last month, the World Health Organisation reported 29 MERS-CoV patients, four of whom died, in five countries – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iran and South Korea, Disease Control Department chief Dr Sopon Mekthon said.
There had been 1,139 MERS-CoV patients since 2012, 431 of whom died, in 24 countries.
