By CS Thana
BANGKOK
An Omani man who was Thailand's first and only MERS patient has recovered, public health officials said Monday.
The head of the Public Health Ministry's Department of Disease Control told reporters that the 75-year-old tourist has now recovered and the ministry expects to release him from quarantine shortly.
Sophon Mekthon also said that members of the patient's family who had traveled with him to Thailand, where he had been seeking treatment for a heart condition, had also been cleared of the flu-like disease.
According to Surachet Satitramai, the ministry’s permanent secretary, 36 more people who have come in contact with the patient remain under observation.
A virologist who advises the Disease Control Department told the Bangkok Post that doctors from leading universities were set to meet Monday to discuss the man's status and if he can be moved from a special treatment room to a recovery room.
Prasert Thongcharoen also confirmed that the patient’s relatives and 156 others who had been quarantined due to high risk of infection by MERS are in normal health.
They will remain in the two-week quarantine until Thursday.
Last week, Thailand's health ministry had threatened some hospitals with legal action for failing to take in Middle Eastern patients suspected of being infected with MERS. The disease has a fatality rate of more than 40 percent in Saudi Arabia where it was first discovered in 2012.
The statement by the health service support director general came in the wake of reports that two private hospitals had sent suspected MERS patients from the region to a government-run infectious disease center in a taxi. It warned that such transfers were against disease control protocols.
The government has also announced that it will introduce several new measures for the estimated 10,000 Thai Muslims undertaking the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca this September.
The pilgrims will be vaccinated for flu and yellow fever before their travels and monitored for up to a month upon their return, while the ministry will dispatch its own doctors to monitor them during their journey.
More than two dozen countries have reported cases of MERS, including South Korea, the U.S., Britain, France and Germany.
South Korea confirmed its first case on May 20, since when the death toll has reached 32, with 182 infected patients.
