MERS spreads to Thailand

One of Thailand's leading hospitals, known for treating medical tourists, said on Friday it had received the country's first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), as authorities said it had taken nearly four days to confirm the illness. The announcement comes as an outbreak in South Korea that began last month and has infected 166 people, killing 24 of them, appears to be leveling off.

Thailand said on Thursday a 75-year-old businessman from Oman, who had traveled to Bangkok for medical treatment for a heart condition, had tested positive for MERS.

The high-end Bumrungrad Hospital, run by Thailand's second-largest hospital operator, identified the first MERS case. The hospital in central Bangkok treats over a million patients a year, about half of them foreigners.

"The patient came to us tired, coughing ... there was no fever," a doctor from the private hospital told a televised news conference. "So we X-rayed his chest ... we found that he could have two things, a heart condition or the MERS virus."

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/6/19/mers-spreads-to-thailand-while-south-korea-cases-level-off.html