Off the wire
• Roundup: Local newspapers see IS penetration in Afghanistan as attempt to replace Taliban  • CPPCC concludes five-year plan meeting  • Interview: Chinese ambassador sees mutual benefit in railway cooperation with Thailand  • Feature: Japanese public unite with constitutional scholars' calls to ditch contentious war bills  • China Headlines: China-Australia FTA to boost economic ties  • 1st LD Writethru: Abbas accepts unity govt's resignation with reshuffle in sight  • Chinese vice president meets Polish foreign minister  • Bulgaria sends frigate to participate in NATO operation in Mediterranean  • Urgent: 1 killed, 8 buried as cliff collapses in Yogyakarta, Indonesia  • Jordan signs 120 mln USD loan deal to address energy needs  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Czech young man ruled out MERS infection, Europe on alert

Xinhua, June 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Czech young man, who was hospitalised in Prague with MERS suspicion on Tuesday, is not infected with the virus, the health minister said Wednesday.

The medical check-ups of the 25-year-old man have ruled out the suspicion, said Czech Health Minister Svatopluk Nemecek.

Nemecek said he could definitively confirm that it is not MERS.

He said the health care system in the Czech Republic has worked very well in this case, even if the disease were confirmed, all measures have been taken would minimize the risk of its further transmission.

Czech public health authorities will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation. There are leaflets in airports to passengers who flew from the endangered area, and disinfection measures were strengthened.

The young man returned from a hiking trip in South Korea on May 30 and got a cold on June 14.

He then got a fever just under 38 Celsius degree on Tuesday. He called emergency medical services and was admitted to the Na Bulovce hospital in Prague and placed in a bio box on Tuesday.

In the latest development, South Korea on Wednesday reported eight more cases of MERS infection and one more death, bringing the total death toll to 20.

Europe is on alarm after the first MERS-related death in the continent was reported in Germany.

The MERS was confirmed Tuesday to have claimed the first victim in Europe as a 65-year-old German patient died of complications of the virus.

The man from the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia had overcome the actual MERS infection, but died of a secondary disease on June 6 at the hospital in the German state of Lower Saxony, said the German hospital network Niels-Stensen-Kliniken.

He was infected in February with the MERS virus during a trip to the Arabian Peninsula, said the Niels Stensen-Kliniken.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the results of repeated tests on samples from a man from South Korea excluded the suspected first case of MERS in Slovakia, the Slovak Health Ministry confirmed.

"We can confirm that the control examination of samples has been completed and the results are negative," ministry spokesman Peter Bubla said.

This result also means that 35 citizens of South Korea isolated in Hotel Fram in Zilina in northern Slovakia could leave the hotel. The 39-year-old South Korean patient remains in University Hospital in Bratislava.

MERS, or the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, is a respiratory illness caused by a new type of coronavirus, similar to the SARS virus that killed more than 770 people worldwide following a 2003 outbreak. There is no known vaccine or treatment for the MERS.

The first MERS case was spotted in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The World Health Organization has reported more than 1,000 cases of MERS globally and more than 400 deaths. Endit