4 airline passengers from northern Mindanao cleared of MERS

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—Four of six persons from Northern Mindanao who returned to the country on an Etihad Airways plane that carried a Filipino nurse who had tested positive for the Corona virus that causes the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome have tested negative for the dreaded virus, health officials said.

Dr. Adriano Subaan, assistant director of the Department of Health’s regional office in Northern Mindanao, said the four cleared residents were among five Etihad passengers the authorities had managed to “isolate” for MERS-CoV testing.

Subaan said health authorities obtained specimens from the five passengers and had these tested at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Manila.

He said the results came in on April 22 and four of those tested were negative for the  virus behind the killer respiratory disease first discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

“They were discharged the following day,” Subaan said.

Subaan said the result of the laboratory test on the fifth passenger has yet to be transmitted by the RITM to the regional DOH office.

He said a sixth Etihad passenger from Northern Mindanao had not been taken into DOH  custody for isolation because that person had left for Ilocos Norte.

“We have made communication to the DOH in Ilocos to trace the sixth passenger,” Subaan said.

Subaan declined to identify any of the passengers.

The massive effort to locate returning Filipinos from the United Arab Emirates via Etihad Airways Flight No. EY 0424 was launched nationwide last week after it was learned that among the passengers was a male nurse who had tested positive for MERS-CoV. This passenger has since emerged negative for the virus after two tests conducted by the RITM.

Subaan said there were also other residents of Northern Mindanao who recently returned from the Middle East and had voluntarily submitted themselves for testing.

“They were not on the same flight, but said they wanted to be tested for fear of infection. So far all of them are negative,” Subaan said.

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