The Department of Health is monitoring the first Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, cases reported in Southeast Asia - a fatal case in Malaysia and a case in the Philippines.
The Malaysian case was a 54-year-old man who had returned from Mecca in Saudi Arabia on March 29 and developed fever, cough and shortness of breath on April 8. He was admitted to hospital on April 10 and died on April 13.
Health authorities are tracing his contracts and medical surveillance is underway.
The Philippines case is a healthcare worker who had had contact with a MERS patient in the United Arab Emirates who died of the disease. He tested positive for MERS while in the Emirates, though he had no symptoms. He returned to the Philippines on April 15. He and his contacts are under quarantine.
To date, 238 MERS cases – not counting these two - have been reported to the World Health Organisation globally, including 92 deaths.
