MERS ruled out for South Korean man in Slovakia

June 16, 2015 | 10:27

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New tests on Monday ruled out the potentially fatal MERS virus in a South Korean man being kept in isolation at a hospital in Slovakia, a health ministry spokesman said.

A South Korean patient suspected of suffering from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is admitted to Kramare hospital in Bratislava, Slovakia. (AFP PHOTO/STRINGER)

BRATISLAVA: New tests on Monday ruled out the potentially fatal MERS virus in a South Korean man being kept in isolation at a hospital in Slovakia, a health ministry spokesman said.

"We can confirm the results of the (latest) test are negative," spokesman Peter Bubla told AFP, adding that the patient remained in hospital. The South Korean was thought to be suffering from a combination of bronchitis and digestive disorders that have now receded, hospital spokeswoman Petra Stano Matasovska told AFP on Monday.

The 38-year-old South Korean arrived in Slovakia on Jun 3 and works for a sub-contractor of Seoul car manufacturer Kia, which has a plant in the central European country. He was admitted to the emergency room Saturday with diarrhoea, fever and skin lesions and underwent a first round of tests whose results were inconclusive.

The South Korean foreign ministry said the man did not appear to have had contact with patients or to have visited venues where infections were reported in South Korea.

On Sunday, Slovak authorities shuttered the hotel in the northern city of Zilina where the man was staying, putting its guests in quarantine.

"The regional public health officer in Zilina has cancelled the measures taken regarding the hotel" following Monday's tests, Bubla said. There is no vaccine for MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), which has a mortality rate of 35 percent, according to the World Health Organisation.

In South Korea 150 people have been infected, of which 16 died, after a 68-year-old man contracted the virus on a trip to Saudi Arabia in late May. Globally, some 1,200 people have been infected with MERS and some 450 have died since the virus first emerged in 2012.

AFP

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