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A Turkish worker who recently returned from Saudi Arabia after contracting the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus has died, authorities have announced.
The Turkish Health Ministry said in a statement on Friday that the worker returned to Turkey on Oct. 6 and immediately went to a private health clinic because his health had deteriorated. It said he remained in intensive care until he died on Oct. 11. The ministry said doctors in Ankara concluded that he had died of the MERS virus, urging those who had been in contact with him to go through a health screening.
The MERS virus, which has gripped the Middle East since last spring and causes coughing, fever and sometimes fatal pneumonia, has been reported in more than 800 patients, mainly in Saudi Arabia. The MERS virus is thought to have spread to neighboring countries and, in a few cases, to Europe, Asia and the United States since it emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
At least 301 MERS-related deaths out of 853 laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported to the World health Organization (WHO). But the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says 352 deaths have been reported to public health authorities worldwide out of 887 confirmed cases.
The disease is thought to have originated from camels and aside from travel-related dispersion, all MERS cases have been confined to the Arabian Peninsula, Lebanon, Jordan and Iran.
The ministry said those who travelled on the same plane with the worker should go see their family doctors, adding that ministry officials are working to inform consulates.
Ministry of Health: Patient admitted for alcohol-related problems, not Ebola.
The Ministry of Health has refuted claims that a foreign national had been admitted to the Haydarpaşa Numune Teaching and Research Hospital on Saturday on suspicions of Ebola, saying the patient suffered from alcohol-related complications and that quarantine had not been put in place.
Patients receiving treatment at the emergency unit of the hospital, located in İstanbul’s Kadıköy district, were transferred to other hospitals after a patient who arrived at the hospital on Saturday evening was determined to have Ebola-like symptoms, according to the Turkish press.
The Health Ministry later released a statement, refuting claims that the patient was admitted for Ebola instead of being treated solely for alcohol-related health complications. However the Ministry of Health has not released any information about the status of the patient.
This is the second time that Ebola suspicions have caused panic in the Turkish city.
A woman from Ivory Coast was also suspected of carrying the deadly Ebola virus, causing a seven-hour panic at Marmara University Teaching and Research Hospital in Pendik last week. The 21-year-old woman, identified as Balkissa Dene, was eventually diagnosed with malaria, according to Turkey’s Health Ministry.
The Ebola virus can cause fever, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea and spreads through contact with bodily fluids.
According to a statement from the WHO on Tuesday, the death toll so far in the outbreak of Ebola, first reported in Guinea in March, has reached 4,447 from a total of 8,914 cases and the epidemic is still spreading in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
WHO has repeatedly said Ebola cases are underreported in the three hardest-hit countries and that understanding the scale and pace of the outbreak is crucial to stopping the spread of the disease.
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