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| Year : 2016 | Volume
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| Issue : 1 | Page : 80 |
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| First Thai MERS case: Importance of travel medicine |
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Viroj Wiwanitkit
Public Health Curriculum, Surin Rajabhat University, Surin, Thailand
Click here for correspondence address and email
| Date of Web Publication | 22-Jan-2016 |
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How to cite this article:
Wiwanitkit V. First Thai MERS case: Importance of travel medicine. Ann Trop Med Public Health 2016;9:80 |
Sir,
Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is an important infection that can cause severe respiratory disease with high fatality. At first, this disease was confined to the Middle East. However, at present, it has spread to several countries around the world. [1] The outbreak of this disease in Korea has become a global public health issue. [2] The trend of its spread to other countries has been mentioned. In Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia, the first case of this disease was reported on June 18, 2015. The patient was a foreigner male who carried the disease to Thailand. He travelled by air from the Middle East to Thailand for a medical treatment and was admitted in a private hospital there. Following this, the symptoms of this infection was observed in Thailand. Disease control is presently being done, aiming for the control of this disease. In absence of a strict airport disease control, the disease can easily spread to a new setting that can lead to MERS outbreak. [3]
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
 References | |  |
| 1. | Wiwanitkit V. Novel Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus. J Formos Med Assoc 2014;113:65.  |
| 2. | Hui DS, Perlman S, Zumla A. Spread of MERS to South Korea and China. Lancet Respir Med 2015. [Epub ahead of print]. |
| 3. | Parry-Ford F, Boddington N, Pebody R, Phin N; Incident Management Team. Public health response to two incidents of confirmed MERS-CoV cases travelling on flights through London Heathrow Airport in 2014 - Lessons learnt. Euro Surveill 2015;20. pii: 21114. |
Correspondence Address:
Viroj Wiwanitkit
Public Health Curriculum, Surin Rajabhat University, Surin
Thailand
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/1755-6783.168706
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