Health authorities will officially announce on Friday the successful cure of the 75-year-old Omani man who is the first confirmed case of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) in Thailand.
Dr Sophon Mekthon, director-general of the Disease Control Department, said on Thursday the Omani man was feeling much better, could eat unassisted and did something by himself. A laboratory test has confirmed he no longer has Mers.
The disease control chief said on Thursday the man could now be moved from the isolation ward at the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute on Friday.
A press conference to announce his successful recovery will include the public health minister, the Omani ambassador to Thailand, representatives of the World Health Organisation and Bumrungrad Hospital, and the president of the Private Hospitals Association.
The Omani man arrived on June 15 for treatment of a heart condition at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok. His Mers infection was confirmed on June 18.
Dr Sophon said Thailand still faced a risk of Mers from visitors from the Middle East and South Korea.
From Jan 1 to July 1, 138 people showing signs of viral infection arrived in Thailand from countries with the Mers outbreak -- 73 from South Korea and 65 from the Middle East. Samples from the people were tested and they were cleared.
From March 2012 to June 30, 2015, there were 1,357 Mers patients in 26 countries and 489 of them had died. In South Korea there have been 183 patients and 33 of them are dead.
