Saudi Arabia Sars-like virus 'kills five'

**Monseratto** · May 4th, 2013 10:23 PM

Ingat lang sa mga OFWs dun...

BBC News - Saudi Arabia Sars-like virus 'kills five'

Five people in Saudi Arabia have died from a Sars-like virus and two more are seriously ill, officials say.

The seven cases were all from al-Ahsa governorate in the east of the country, the Saudi news agency SPA said citing health officials.

The novel coronavirus (NCoV) causes pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure.

It is from the same family of viruses as the one that caused an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) that emerged in Asia in 2003.

WHO notification
In the statement released by SPA, the Saudi health ministry said it was taking "all precautionary measures for persons who have been in contact with the infected people... and has taken samples from them to examine if they are infected".

However, the ministry gave no details on how many people had been tested for the disease.

In a statement, the World Health Organization said the cases were not from the same family and preliminary inquiries showed "no indication of recent travel or animal contact" in any of the confirmed cases.

**jrn29** · May 4th, 2013 10:47 PM

saan daw kaya sa saudi to ??

**jaypee10** · May 6th, 2013 03:41 PM

delikado nanaman mga kababayan natin dyan..

baka maka pasok din dito sa atin..

**Monseratto** · May 6th, 2013 05:13 PM

Anyone watched the movie "Contagion"...?

SARS-Like Virus Kills 2 More in Saudi Arabia - WSJ.com

Updated May 6, 2013, 3:42 a.m. ET
SARS-Like Virus Kills 2 More in Saudi Arabia

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER in Riyadh And BETSY MCKAY in Atlanta

RIYADH—Saudi Arabia announced two more deaths overnight Monday in the latest outbreak of a SARS-like virus currently centered on a small hospital in the kingdom's east, bringing the toll reported by the government at the health center since Wednesday to seven dead and another six who have fallen ill.

The latest deaths, a 62-year-old woman and a 71-year-old man, heightened worries in Saudi Arabia and abroad that the outbreak of an apparently Middle East-based disease known as the novel coronavirus could be escalating.

The surge of fatalities brings confirmed deaths in the yearold outbreak to 18 and overall cases to 30. It has heightened concern from ordinary Saudis and international medical officials that the kingdom is not disclosing enough information on the outbreak to help limit and stop the spread. Most of the cases reported have been in Saudi Arabia.

The 13 cases linked to one Saudi hospital suggest the spread of this coronavirus may have reached a dangerous new stage in which it is spreading from one human to another, rather than infecting humans from another source such as an infected animal, according to infectious disease experts.

The virus has spread quickly: 13 people were infected between April 14 and May 1, nearly half of the 30 total cases that have been reported to the World Health Organization. Of those 30 cases, 18 have died, giving the disease a case fatality rate similar to that of the feared H5N1 avian flu.

Saudi Deputy Health Minister Ziad Memish announced the two new deaths, and another case of a patient in critical condition with coronavirus, in an email published late Sunday on the international Promed medical website.

"Transmission seems linked to one (health-care facility)" in the city of Hofuf, in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, Dr. Memish said in the brief email. It stated that no community transmission appeared likely in the latest outbreak, but did not clarify or elaborate further on the cases.

At the health ministry, staffers said neither Dr. Memish nor other health officials would be available to speak Monday about the outbreak.

According to the World Health Organization, the coronavirus—which is related to the SARS virus that struck Asia a decade ago—first appeared in a "health-care setting" in April 2012 in Jordan, where it killed two people. More cases since have been confirmed in Saudi Arabia, Britain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

**chua_riwap** · May 6th, 2013 06:55 PM

malamang kumalat yan.
langya, mga saudis pa naman dugyot sa katawan.

tamad maligo!

**Monseratto** · September 17th, 2013 04:32 PM

50 deaths later and the first confirmed OFW victim...

A Pinay nurse in Saudi Arabia died of corona virus, the first Filipino who died of the illness - DFA

**Monseratto** · April 21st, 2014 10:56 PM

PNP may use ?reasonable force? against Etihad passengers refusing medical test | Inquirer News

PNP may use ‘reasonable force’ against Etihad Airlines passengers refusing medical test
By Julliane Love De Jesus
INQUIRER.net
3:44 pm | Monday, April 21st, 2014

MANILA, Philippines—If one of the passengers of Etihad Airlines flight EY0424 refuses to be examined for possible infection of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus (MERS-CoV), the police could use “reasonable force.”

The Philippine National Police (PNP) maintained on Monday that it holds an inherent police power to compel a person to yield to them for the safety of the general public.

“We will have to bodily carry them (if they resist) as a last resort but we have not reached that point yet,” Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP Public Information Chief, said in a press briefing.

Sindac said the‎ PNP can use the special power as it is provided in Republic Act 9271 or the Quarantine Law of 2004. ‎

On orders of President Benigno Aquino III and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, the PNP has been directed to “assist and support” the Department of Health (DOH) in locating the passengers with risks of carrying MERS-CoV.

But as of Monday, the DOH said 113 out of the 414 passengers were tested negative.

“We could compel civilians in line of general public safety. If the people are at risk, the police can enforce persuasive measures,”‎ he said.

Sindac said the police would persuade the passengers ‎to cooperate for their own good.
‎
Once the police locate one of the infected persons, Sindac said the PNP will immediately secure the area and relay the person’s location to DOH.

**Red Advent 04** · April 22nd, 2014 11:37 AM

lumalaganap nadin ang epidemya sa bansa nila..

**Monseratto** · April 22nd, 2014 11:51 AM

Meron din MERS carrier dito sa pinas. Tigas ng ulo kasi.. Galing sa close contact with camels or drinking camel's milk...

MERS outbreaks grow; Malaysian case had camel link | CIDRAP

Outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infections expanded further today with reports of seven more cases in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and three in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that Malaysia's first MERS patient had drunk camel milk when he visited Saudi Arabia.

In the UAE, the WHO today reported four cases in HCWs, but one of them apparently is that of the Filipino whose infection was reported by the media yesterday, after he flew home to the Philippines. Only one of the patients is sick, the agency reported.

The fourth patient is a 34-year-old man from the Philippines who lives in Abu Dhabi and is healthy, the agency said. Apparently referring to him, the statement adds that one patient "returned to his home country although he was advised not to before the laboratory results were received."

Media reports yesterday said the test results were released after the man, a nurse, arrived home in the Philippines. Officials said then that the man and nine of his close contacts were in quarantine, and airline passengers who sat near him were being traced.

Today's WHO statement also adds information on the case reported yesterday in a Malaysian man who died of MERS-CoV after a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. His case and that of the Filipino are the first MERS cases reported in the Far East.

The Malaysian man, 54, traveled to Saudi Arabia with a group of 18 pilgrims and was away from Mar 15 to 28. While visiting a camel farm on Mar 26, he drank camel milk, the WHO said. The man fell ill after returning home and died on Apr 13.

Studies have suggested that MERS-CoV is fairly common in camels in Saudi Arabia and neighboring countries, and one or two human MERS patients were found to have had contact with infected camels. Thus camels are strongly suspected to be a source of MERS-CoV in humans, but the precise transmission route is unknown.

**Monseratto** · April 23rd, 2014 07:50 PM

May lookout alert...ingat.

Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines
Like This Page · 4 hrs

LIST: The 43 passengers of Etihad Airlines EY0424 who cannot be contacted by the Department of Health (Philippines) as of 12pm today.

These passengers, who arrived at NAIA from Abu Dhabi last April 15, 2014, are enjoined to coordinate and cooperate with the DOH to undergo testing and thus prevent the spread of MERS-CoV. Go to the DOH nearest hospital or call DOH hotlines: 711-1001; 711-1002; 0922-884-1564; 0920-949-8419; 09157725621.