Thailand reports 2nd MERS case as virus detected in Omani man

Thailand has confirmed its second case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus on Sunday, the country's health minister said. The virus was detected in a 71-year-old Omani man travelling to Bangkok on Friday, Public Health Minister Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn told a news conference.

A boy gets his body temperature checked by a Thai officer upon his arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand Friday, June 19, 2015. Thailand confirmed on Thursday its first known case of the deadly MERS virus

"After taking a taxi to a hotel, he was checked for the virus at a hospital and the MERS virus was found," he said. "This case was found quickly, so the public should not panic," he added.


The health minister said 37 others were being monitored for the virus, including the man's son who travelled with him. Thailand's first MERS case was detected last year in a businessman from Oman who survived the disease.

MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered China's deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). MERS was first identified in humans in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and the majority of cases have been in the Middle East.

(Reporting Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Muralikumar Anantharaman)