Beijing: The deadly MERS has now hit China, with the health authorities Friday confirming the first case as a South Korean man, who showed symptoms of the viral illness back home but ignored doctors' advice and travelled to Hong Kong.
The 44-year-old man later entered Huizhou City via Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
He had close contact with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) patients at home and expressed discomfort as early as May 21, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Huizhou health authorities put the man under observation in isolation early yesterday morning and also isolated people who had close contact with him.
He is a son of a 76-year-old man who was the third confirmed case of MERS in Korea and a brother of the fourth confirmed patient. The man is known to have stayed for four hours in a room where his father and another MERS patient were being treated, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.
He left for China on Tuesday despite his doctors advising against travelling after his fever rose to over 38 degrees Celsius, one of the common symptoms of MERS.
Of 38 known contacts, no unusual findings have been reported so far, the commission said.
The man reported a high temperature of 39.5 degrees Celsius and a chest X-ray showed lesions on his lungs, indicating possible infectious pneumonia, it said.
MERS is a respiratory illness caused by a new type of corona virus.
The first case was identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia where more than 400 have been killed. Over 20 countries have been affected.
There is no vaccine or treatment for the disease, which has a fatality rate reaching 40.7 per cent.
