A male visitor to the Philippines has been diagnosed with Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS), according to health officials in that country. This is the second confirmed case of MERS in the Philippines.
The visitor arrived in the Philippines from Saudi Arabia and Dubai, where MERS is epidemic, in June. The man made an additional trip before developing symptoms of MERS, including a fever and cough, on June 30. Several people came into contact with the patient before the diagnosis was made. He was on a flight with around 200 passengers before his diagnosis and these people are being traced.
One person that he came in contact with, a Filipino woman, has been isolated because she is showing mild symptoms of MERS. At least seven more people are quarantined to their homes. Since his diagnosis, the visitor has been quarantined at a facility of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.
No further information about the visitor--except that he or she is aged 36--has been made available. His national origin has not been made public.
The first confirmed case of MERS in the Philippines occurred in a Filipino nurse who returned home in February from the Middle East. Her infection resolved in February.
MERS spread to South Korea, where it is confirmed to have infected 186 people and killed 33. This is the biggest outbreak outside of the Middle East. MERS was first identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia. The virus is thought to have crossed over to humans from camels. In South Korea, schools were shut down for a time and one whole village was quarantined to try to stop the spread of the virus.
The symptoms of MERS are fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Some patients also develop pneumonia and diarrhea. The death rate from MERS is about one in three people who develop symptoms.