Two Florida hospital workers who treated a MERS patient have reported flue-like symptoms, officials said Tuesday.
One worker was quarantined inside Dr. P. Phillips Hospital in Orlando, while the other was treated and sent home, The Washington Post reported. Both workers were tested for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus. Officials expect to receive the results in the next two days.
One of the hospital workers started showing symptoms the day after coming into contact with the MERS patient, NBC News reported. Since it takes about five days for someone to show symptoms after contracting the virus, that case is most likely not MERS.
"We want to be extra cautious," Dr. Antonio Crespo, an infectious disease specialist and chief quality officer at the Orlando hospital, told NBC News. "These two people were in contact with the patient without a mask."
The 44-year-old MERS patient, the second U.S. case, has also been quarantined after arriving at the hospital May 8. The patient returned from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. for a planned family trip. Saudi Arabia has been hit hard by the deadly virus, with over 400 reported cases.
The virus has killed nearly 150 people, mostly in Saudi Arabia, according to the World Health Organization.
At least 20 other Orlando hospital workers that may have been exposed to the virus have kept themselves at home and are being tested, Crespo told the station.
Before the man was admitted to Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, he went to the Orlando Regional Medical Center with another family member on May 5, medical officials told The Washington Post. The man remained in a waiting room while the family member received medical tests.
Crespo told the newspaper that since the man was not coughing while in the first hospital, there is a decreased risk others around him were infected. MERS, a virus that attacks the respiratory system, is not easily transferred between humans. Symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath.
An Indiana man was released from a hospital last Friday after being the first reported MERS case in the U.S. Doctors say he no longer tested positive for the virus.
