After Malaysia became the first country in Asia outside of the Middle East to record a death from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), 64 people in a village in Johor have been quarantined for a week over fears the new virus will spread.
About 100 villagers from Kampung Bintang, where the 54-year old victim who died on April 13 came from, went through a special screening process in Batu Pahat yesterday.
Johor Health and Environment executive committee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat said a special screening centre had been set up in Kampung Bintang to screen the villagers for the virus.
“This is the first such case in Malaysia, and we take this matter seriously. That is why we are taking steps to screen the villagers to prevent the virus from spreading,” The Star Online reports Ayub as saying in a press statement.
The victim was a 54-year old man who had returned from an umrah pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. The victim died on April 13th in Johor, after being admitted for breathing difficulties, a cold, and a fever. He had arrived in Malaysia on March 29 after performing the umrah, and died after being admitted to the Hospital Sultanah Nora Ismail for three days.
The MERS-CoV was first detected in the Middle East in 2012, but researchers have yet to determine its cause.
The World Health Organisation has recorded 238 cases of the disease and 92 deaths related to the MERS-CoV globally to date.
See Also: First MERS death outside of Middle East recorded in Malaysia
Graphics: AFP
