MERS virus: 4 Etihad passengers isolated in North Cotabato

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines —Health officials in North Cotabato are closely monitoring a foreigner and three overseas Filipino workers who recently returned home on board an Etihad Airways on which a nurse who had tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was also a passenger.

Dr. Eva Rabaya, chief of the North Cotabato Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO), told reporters Tuesday that that health workers have found and talked to the OFWs and the foreigner, none of whom she identified.

Eleven of the Etihad passengers returned home to Central Mindanao last week. Dr. Teogenes Baluma, regional director of Department of Health, said three of them were confined in a government hospital in Cotabato City undergoing medical examination to determine if they have the virus.

Among them is a 60-year-old man from Iloilo City who visited Isulan, Sultan Kudarat.

Dr. Rabaya and Jenny Ventura, speaking for the DOH office in Region 12,  appealed to the public not to panic and avoid direct contact with their relatives who have recently returned from the Middle East.

“To date, there’s no confirmed virus carrier and there’s nothing to worry about because health officials are working on it,” Ventura said.

North Cotabato had four passengers on the Etihad flight, Rabaya said.

“They are now undergoing quarantine, three are Filipinos and a foreigner,” Rabaya said without naming the patients.

She said the foreigner was invited by an OFW friend from Kidapawan City.

“Our health workers took nose and throat swabs and we are waiting for the results,” she said of the OFWs who arrived last April 15.  She said  IPHO North Cotabato was  informed by DOH-Manila about the possibility they were infected.

“They were told to stay home and told to isolate themselves in their homes. They and their families were advised to wear masks,” Rabaya added.

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