Manila: President Benigno Aquino has called for strict measures to prevent the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the Philippines, following the death of a Filipino paramedic of MERS-CoV in the UAE on April 10, sources said.

The Bureau of Quarantine has reactivated, at the three terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in suburban Pasay City, a surveillance system that the health department started using to monitor incoming passengers for bird flu and influenza virus (H7N9 and H1N1) in 2003, the health department said in a statement.

Hospitals have been ordered to report to authorities cases of patients with severe respiratory illnesses, the statement said, adding that passengers coming from the Middle East should watch out for symptoms of respiratory ailments within 10 days of arrival.

“Even if we have no reported cases of MERS-CoV yet in the Philippines, we should remain vigilant and prevent it from spreading in our country,” said Dr Lyndon Lee Suy, head of the health department’s Bureau of Emerging and Re-emerging Diseases.

Meanwhile, authorities have decided not to send back to the Philippines the ashes of the Filipino paramedic who died of MERS-CoV in Al Ain on April 10, a foreign affairs source in Manila told Gulf News.

The body will be cremated in Al Ain, said the source, who did not give further details.

Earlier, the foreign affairs department had said it would abide by the request of his family to bring back his ashes to the Philippines.

At the same time, the labour department ordered the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) to provide financial assistance to his family in the Philippines. The deceased’s name has been withheld.

Meanwhile, five other OFWs who were infected with MERS-CoV remained under quarantine at a hospital in Al Ain. In coordination with the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi, a medical team of the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, reported to Manila that the infected Filipinos were in a stable condition.

Giving advice to all OFWs in the Middle East, Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said, “We are advising all Filipinos not only in the UAE but in the whole of Middle East to take precautionary measures against the deadly MERS-Cov.”

They should wash hands, follow advisories of health authorities, sleep, eat properly, and seek medical attention if symptoms of respiratory ailment are felt, said Jose. Symptoms include cough, diarrhoea, fever, shortness of breath, pneumonia, and kidney failure.

A Filipina nurse, 41, died of MERS-CoV infection in Riyadh on August 29, 2013.

Cases of MERS-CoV were also recorded in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Oman in the Middle East; and in several European countries.

There have been a total of 228 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infections, and 92 deaths in 10 countries since 2012, the World Health Organisation said.