Health Ministry declares Thailand MERS-free

BANGKOK, July 3 (TNA) - Thailand’s Public Health Ministry has declared the country now free from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), after the Kingdom's first MERS-CoV patient, a 75-year-old Omani visitor, has fully recovered and is scheduled to return to his home country by July 3. Thai Public Health Minister Dr. Rajata Rajatanavin publicly declared the country MERS-CoV free at a press conference, jointly held in Bangkok on Friday with Dr. Num Tanthuwanit, a medical director of privately-run Bumrungrad International Hospital, and Omani Ambassador to Thailand H.E. Abullah Saleh Ahmed al Maimani, almost a month after the country’s first MERS-CoV case was confirmed and had been treated in an isolated ward at the state-run Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute since then, until his five latest lab tests had all shown negative and he was discharged from the institute earlier in the day, together with his three relatives whose conditions were confirmed normal after they had completed a 14-day standard quarantine at the institute. Dr. Rajata noted that the Omani patient has been able to breathe without a respirator for the past five days and problems with his heart disease have also improved, while his three relatives have been confirmed normal, after 10 consecutive lab tests showed their respiratory and digestive systems were normal, meaning they were completely safe for discharge from the institute. The Thai health minister announced that 176 other people who had closely contacted with the Omani MERS-CoV patient completed their 14-day quarantine period on July 2 and had also been discharged. The health minister stressed although Thailand is now a MERS-CoV free country due to no patient and any outbreak of the deadly virus, local health authorities will carry on their standard MERS-CoV monitoring procedures at all hospitals as a precaution, while the general public are advised to take good care of themselves, particularly those returning from MERS-CoV-hit South Korea and the Middle East, or those having close contacts with travellers from the MERS-CoV affected areas, by going to see doctors immediately and reporting their trips to the physicians if they are sick or have a fever. The health minister acknowledged that Thailand needs to be, however, make an official notice that the country once had an imported MERS-CoV case from the Middle East. Meanwhile, the Omani top envoy thanked the Thai government for taking good care of the Omani patient, confirming that the Omani man and his three relatives are scheduled to fly home on Friday evening. Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute Director Dr. Chariya Saengsajja also confirmed that the Omani man can now return to his home country with no longer MERS-CoV risk to others, while her institute has issued a medical certificate to facilitate his travel, together with his three relatives. (TNA)