India’s Kerala sounds alert against MERS

The southern Indian state of Kerala, which has nearly a million workforce in Saudi Arabia, has sounded high alert against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus that claimed 126 lives in the Kingdom so far.
A suspected case of MERS-CoV disease was reported in the northern district of Kozhikode this week. A special ward isolated from the rest has been opened at the Government Beach Hospital there to meet emergency.
Blood samples of a 57-year-old woman who arrived from Saudi Arabia at the Calicut airport with the symptoms of MERS after performing umrah was sent for detailed investigation to Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, in the nearby Karnataka state, authorities said Friday.
“We have been sending an average of five swabs a day for investigation but no confirmed case of MERS was reported so far. We are continuing strict surveillance and there’s no need to panic,” said Dr. PK Jameela, director of Kerala Health Services. “It takes three to four days to reach the test results here.”
The disease was first detected in Saudi Arabia in September 2012 and it has since spread to several countries including the UAE, Qatar, Malaysia, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, the Philippines, France, Italy, Britain, Germany and the US.
“We have been closely watching the situation since the outbreak of the viral respiratory illness in Saudi Arabia. I think the health authorities there have succeeded in creating awareness among the expatriates to avoid close person-to-person contact,” she said.
She said the joint monitoring group under the federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had held a meeting specifically for the risk assessment of MERS-CoV.