Bahrain on the qui vive to stave off MERS

Manama 

In its continuous efforts to protect the society form the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Health Ministry is following up with the health authorities in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states to receive the latest updates about the disease, which has been increasing worldwide since 2012.

In a recent statement, Public Health Directorate in the Ministry confirmed that it’s closely observing the situation in the region regarding the detection of MERS, which also known as Corona Virus (CoV).

The directorate announced that it’s cooperating with international and regional healthcare organisations to exchange information, experience and latest updates. However, the directorate assured that no case of MERS-CoV was ever detected in Bahrain.

“Since it was first discovered three years ago, the Ministry is investigating whether the disease has emerged in the Kingdom. As many as 1,237 suspected cases have been examined since then and they were all negative,” the statement read.

The Ministry added that several studies indicated that the disease was transmitted to humans through camels. “Simultaneously, 46 individuals, who have contact with camels due to their work or other reasons, have been also examined,” the Ministry explained.

The statement comes a month after South Korean health officials confirmed the country's first case of MERS-CoV in a male patient, who recently returned from Bahrain.

Bahraini health authorities stated back then that “Bahrain remains MERS free and it’s very unlikely that the patient was infected by the deadly virus in the Kingdom, as he travelled to other countries in the region and no case of MERS was ever reported in Bahrain.”

However, the disease rapidly spread in South Korea claiming 23 lives in one month, with 165 confirmed cases of the infection and more than 6,700 people held in quarantine, according to World Health Organisation’s (WHO) latest statistics.

Another case was also detected on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates, as Abu Dhabi health authorities confirmed the death of a 65-year-old man. On the same day, Thailand also confirmed the first death case caused by MERS-CoV.