MERS-CoV added to Thailand's pandemic list

BANGKOK, June 12 (TNA) - Thai health authorities have resolved to include the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) into a national pandemic list, which requires an immediate report to health authorities if any person with suspicious symptoms is found and a quarantine of a suspect for a certain period of time with no charge of human rights violation. The resolution has been announced after a meeting of the Thai health experts, including Professor Dr. Prasert Thongcharoen, an advisor to the Thai Ministry of Public Health's Department of Disease Control, on June 11. Acting Permanent Secretary for Public Health Dr. Surachet Satitramai told journalists that the decision on adding MERS-CoV on Thailand's list of dangerous communicable diseases is aimed to easier control any outbreak of the deadly virus in the country. Dr. Surachet said once Thai Public Health Minister Dr. Rajata Rajatanavin signs in an official order to include the emerging fatal virus on the list, expected within a few days, MERS-CoV will be the 7th diseases on the country's pandemic list, after Ebola, while the five others are cholera, plague, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), smallpox and yellow fever. The senior health official confirmed that there has been no MERS-CoV case in Thailand so far. According to updated news reports, there have been 126 MERS-CoV cases in South Korea since May 20, 2015, 11 of them have died as of June 12. (TNA)