DOH confirms case of first Filipino with MERS-CoV

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday announced that a nurse who recently arrived from Saudi Arabia is confirmed to be the first case of ?Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the country.

Reading a statement from Acting Health Secretary Janet Garin, DOH Undersecretary Nemesio Gako said the 32-year-old overseas Filipino worker suffering from the deadly MERS-CoV arrived February 1 aboard Saudi Airlines flight 860.

She was confined at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City on Tuesday. The medical facility is the national reference center for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.

The unnamed patient did not exhibit any symptoms upon arrival in the Philippines, Gako said.

The agency has started tracing the 225 passengers on the flight, but Gako said that there is a low risk of infections as the patient did not have symptoms while on board.

Her husband, meanwhile, has also been confined but shows no symptoms.

MERS-CoV belongs to a family of viruses known as corona viruses that include both the common cold and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, which killed some 800 people in a global outbreak in 2003. MERS-CoV can cause symptoms including fever, breathing problems, pneumonia and kidney failure.

Scientists believe camels may play a role in primary infections. The disease can then spread between people, but typically only if they are in close contact with one another. Many of those infected have been health-care workers. - reports from Sheila Crisostomo with AP