Manila: An overseas Filipino worker, suspected as a carrier of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome — Corona virus, was isolated from family members and quarantined for 10 to 40 days after his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in suburban Pasay City on Wednesday.
The OFW, whose name was not revealed, voluntarily approached authorities and requested to be quarantined after his arrival at the airport. He admitted that he tested positive for MERS-CoV following his contact with an OFW, a paramedic, who died of MERS-CoV in Al Ain in the UAE last April 10, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said.
“But he was allowed to return to the Philippines because he was asymptomatic of MERS-CoV,” said Ona, adding, “His four family members who arrived with him from the UAE were also subjected to tests and were ordered not to mingle with other people for 10 to 40 days, until they get clearance that they are MERS-CoV free.”
Medical workers extracted blood from the family members of the OFW including their relatives who fetched them at the airport, said Ona, adding, “We advised all of them to isolate themselves from other family members.”
Earlier, the Bureau of Quarantine reactivated at NAIA an existing surveillance system that the health department started using to monitor incoming passengers for bird flu and influenza virus (H7N9 and H1N1) in 2003, the health department said in a statement.
Vigilant
Hospitals were ordered to report to authorities cases of patients with severe respiratory illnesses, the statement said, adding that passengers coming from the Middle East should watch out for symptoms of respiratory ailments within 10 days of arrival.
“Even if we have no reported cases of MERS-CoV yet in the Philippines, we should remain vigilant and prevent it from spreading in our country,” said Dr Lyndon Lee Suy, head of the health department’s Bureau of Emerging and Re-emerging Diseases.
Meanwhile, authorities have decided not to send back to the Philippines the ashes of the Filipino paramedic who died of MERS-CoV in Al Ain on April 10, a foreign affairs source in Manila told Gulf News.
The body of the ill-fated Filipino will be cremated in Al Ain, said the source, but did not give other details.
Earlier, the foreign affairs department said it would abide by the request of his family to bring back his ashes to the Philippines.
At the same time, the labour department ordered the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to provide financial assistance to his family in the Philippines. His name was withheld.
Five more OFWs who were infected with MERS-CoV remained under quarantine at a hospital in Al Ain. In coordination with the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi, a medical team of the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, reported to Manila that the infected Filipinos were in a “stable condition”.
Precautionary measures
Giving advise to all OFWs in the Middle East, Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said, “We are advising all Filipinos not only in the UAE but in the whole of Middle East to take precautionary measures against the deadly MERS-Cov.”
They should wash hands, follow advisories of health authorities, sleep, eat properly, and seek medical attention if symptoms of respiratory ailment are felt, said Jose. Symptoms include cough, diarrhoea, fever, shortness of breath, pneumonia, and kidney failure.
A Filipina nurse, 41, died of MERS-CoV infection in Riyadh on August 29, 2013.
Cases of MERS-CoV were also recorded in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Oman in the Middle East; and in several European countries.
There have been a total of 228 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infections, and 92 deaths in 10 countries since 2012, the World Health Organisation said.
