The America’s first patient identified with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS) is recuperating at the Community Hospital in Munster, the Indiana State Department of Health said.
“The patient is responding well to the treatment,” the health official said.
“We are pleased the patient is improving and no other cases have been identified at this time,” CEO Don Fesko said in a news release.
Fesko also said that the hospital is working with the state health department and the CDC and following their directives.
According to the people, no new cases of deadly MERS have been identified in the US so far.
Meanwhile, the state and federal officials including Indiana Gov. Mike Pence are scheduled to provide with more updates on MERS at a news conference Monday morning.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the first MERS case in the United States on Friday.
The patient is an American health-care provider who visited Saudi Arabia recently. The person flew from Riyadh to London to Chicago on April 24 and reached Indiana by bus. The patient fell ill on April 27 and was hospitalized the next day, U.S. officials said. The officials have not released more specific information about the patient or his travels.
Meanwhile, all hospital staff who came into direct contact with the patient have been asked to remain at leave for two weeks. The incubation period for the virus is two weeks. However, none have shown any signs of the disease.
While briefing the media on Friday, Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said, “The CDC is trying to determine who may have come into contact with the patient who is under observation.”
Egypt and Saudi Arabia are facing the deadly Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak. The first case of MERS human infection was reported in September 2012 and since then it has claimed over 100 deaths so far.
According to the CDC, there have been 401 confirmed cases of MERS infections reported from 12 countries, including the US. All reported cases have originated in one of six Arabian Peninsula countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Jordan and Kuwait.
Dr. Michael Lin, an infectious disease specialist at Rush University Medical Center, said, “Right now we don’t have a lot of experience with this in the US. Most of our information about how this virus spreads comes from the Middle East.”
Lin further said, “Fortunately MERS does not seem to be extremely contagious”.
Some of the common symptoms of MERS are: fever, cough and respiratory problems.
