PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is free of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection.
Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said no new cases of the disease had been reported after a man tested positive for MERS-CoV on Dec 31 last year.
He said the ministry had conducted prevention and control activities at all levels to curb the spread of the MERS-CoV infection.
"Based on the activities that we have implemented, no latest case of MERS-CoV had been detected. There is also no disease cluster.
"We monitored 75 people who had direct contact with the patient which included family members, relatives, friends, umrah pilgrims in the same group, the staff at the health facilities that treated the man and those who were on the same flight with him on Dec 23, 2017.
"Of the total, 59 people were put under surveillance at home for 14 days, starting from the day the person last met with the patient. All samples taken from the close contacts had been tested and the result was negative of the disease," he said in a statement today.
He said the monitoring of the infection was conducted for two incubation periods, in which 28 days from the first day the patient showed the symptoms (Dec 24), and ended on Jan 20. He said no new case has been reported during this period.
"Just like the first MERS-CoV case in the country in 2014, the second case also showed that the disease did not spread to other individuals. The ministry hereby declares that the MERS-CoV infection, which was reported on Jan 1, had ended," he said.
On Jan 1, a 55-year-old man who returned from Umrah to Saudi Arabia, was tested positive for MERS-CoV.
The man, from Selangor, who returned to the the country on Dec 23, had shown symptoms of fever, cough, fatigue and leg pain a day after returning from the trip.
He told authorities that he had consumed fresh camel milk while in Mecca, and had also come into contact with camels during a visit to a camel farm.