OFW died of Mers-CoV in Saudi Arabia, says family

COTABATO CITY, Philippines – An overseas Filipino worker from Maguindanao, who had worked in Saudi Arabia about five years already, recently died of suspected Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (Mers-CoV), the family said here.

Tidting Khalifa of Matanog, Maguindanao, said her 44-year old daughter, Husna, had been taken to the King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah and died there on April 12.

Husna, he said, had been in Saudi Arabia since 2009, on an assumed passport belonging to a Norisa Naing.

“It was given to her by her recruiter,” he said, without identifying the recruiter.

Khalifa, quoting information the family got from sources – including other relatives working in Jeddah — said his daughter had suffered from flu-like symptoms before being taken to the King Fahd hospital.

But she died a few days later.

Her remains were buried there due to quarantine restrictions, he said.

Mers-CoV has been giving Saudi health authorities a serious headache since first discovered there in 2012.

Victims suffering from Mers-CoV develop severe acute respiratory illness such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath. About 50 percent of the 206 victims diagnosed with the viral disease had died, the Saudi Ministry of Health said.

Saudi health officials last week even shut down the emergency unit of the King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah after a spike in cases of suspected Mers recorded there this month.

The media in nearby Gulf states recently reported that at least 15 workers at the hospital have also shown flu-like symptoms but the report has not been confirmed by Saudi health officials.

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