Aquino orders DOH to exhaust all means to contain MERS-CoV

President Benigno S. Aquino III with acting Health Secretary Janette Garin (Photo by Robert Viñas/Malacañang Photo Bureau/PNA)

MANILA — President Aquino has directed the Department of Health (DOH) to implement all preventive measures against MERS-CoV after a Filipino nurse who arrived from Saudi Arabia last week has been confirmed to be positive of the virus.

In a statement, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the President “has directed Acting Health Secretary Janette Garin to ensure that all necessary preventive measures are taken in connection with the reported case of MERS-CoV now being treated at Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).”

”Contact tracing is being done to locate fellow passengers of the patient who traveled from Saudi Arabia to Manila last week,” he added.

DOH, in a statement, said the 32-year-old patient, whose identity remains kept, went to RITM early this week after experiencing MERS-CoV-like symptoms like fever, body aches, cough and shortness of breath.

The patient is now confined and under observation in a negative pressure room in RITM, it said.

”Sa ngayon (To date), the patient is in stable condition. Contact tracing of other passengers is also being done.

Experts believe that the possibility of other passengers on the plane being infected, is low,” it added.