Suspected MERS-CoV case in Guangdong, China

HEALTH authorities in China are monitoring a suspected Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS CoV) case involving a Korean man who travelled to the Mainland by bus from the Hong Kong airport. 

 

The 44-year-old man, who flew to Hong Kong on May 26 aboard an Asiana flight from Incheon, had been on voluntary home quarantine in South Korea, after his father, 76, and a sister, 45, were confirmed to be be infected with the MERS virus. He is now in isolation in a hospital in Guangdong province, where his test results for the virus are still pending.

 

MERS is a strain of coronavirus, a large family of viruses that cause a range of illnesses that include the common cold and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),  first identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia.

 

South Korean health authorities meanwhile said there were 158 passengers and eight crew members on the Asiana flight that the suspected MERS case had boarded. Among them, 82 were in the same cabin, including 29 who were sitting within two rows of the MERS CoV patient. 

 

In Hong Kong, Centre for Health Protection controller Dr Leung Ting-hung said the centre is liaising with Mainland and Korean authorities and the World Health Organisation to follow-up on the case. Of the 29 passengers who came into close contact with the man, 12 have been traced -- three are Korean and nine are Chinese who have been quarantined for a two-week observation period,  Dr Leung said at a press conference on Friday evening. About 10 people have left Hong Kong, he added.

 

The centre will start medical surveillance for others who were on the same flight and buses as the patient. He had travelled from Hong Kong International Airport to Huizhou in Guangdong on two buses operated by Eternal East Cross-Border Coach with number plates PJ 2595 and HN 5211.

 

Another 10 people who rode on the same shuttle bus to Guangdong as the South Korean man will be monitored. Three of the 10 passengers from the PJ 2595 cross-border bus had transferred to a seven-seater vehicle in Sha Tau Kok, the centre also said. 

 

Secretary for Food & Health Dr Ko Wing-man urged passengers who were on the same flight or bus as the man to come forward for medical assessment. "I am very concerned about the outbreak of MERS because the transmission (of the disease) has never been stopped since it occurred more than two years ago. Reports of sporadic cases and cluster of cases continue. Under this situation, Hong Kong has never stopped its vigilance as well as the risk management measures that we have applied.

 

Globally, according to the World Health Organisation, there have been 1139 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including at least 431 related deaths.