Fears of deadly Mers virus

RIYADH: The family of an Indian expatriate, who died of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) corona virus in Saudi Arabia, has refused to receive his body in India, amid fears of contracting the deadly disease.

Mers can be transmitted by air to humans.

Dasharati Sattaih, who worked in a maintenance company in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province that had contracts with several hospitals, contracted the viral disease while on the job, and died on June 20, Arab News reported.

The family of Sattaih, who hails from the Adilabad district of the south Indian state of Telangana, has refused to claim the body after they learned from misleading sources that they could be infected with the disease if they touched the body.

The employer has been working to help repatriate the body to India, but the family has refused to complete the formalities.

This has led to the body lying unclaimed in a morgue, the report stated.

Repatriation or burial of an expatriate worker in the Arab nation can be a complicated process which can only be eased with the cooperation of the kin.

In a related incident, another Indian expatriate who died after a prolonged illness in Saudi Arabia has been ruled out to be Mers-infected.

The body of Akrim Singh, from Punjab, was finally repatriated home.

Mers is considered a deadly but less transmissible cousin of the Sars virus, which erupted in Asia in 2003 and infected thousands of people.

The Mers virus emerged in the Middle East in 2012, and so far cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Tunisia and parts of Europe.

The Saudi government has been criticised by international health experts over its handling of the disease, which has spread to several Middle Eastern countries, Asia, and the US.

As many as 300 people have succumbed to the deadly virus out of 733 cases detected in the Gulf nation since the first case was registered some two years ago. WASHINGTON: India’s marathon man, Ashis Roy, has added another half marathon to his bag to take his overall tally to 138 as he completed his 23rd 13.1-mile run in the NavyAir Force Half Marathon here.

Roy, 82, the oldest runner participating in the half marathon, finished the course in three hours, 28 minutes and 40 seconds, clipping five minutes from his last US run in Alexandria, a Washington suburb in Virginia, last May.

More than 6 000 runners joined the half marathon taking them past several of the American capital’s tourist sights, including the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall.

Starting and finishing in the shadow of the Washington Monument, the race followed a picturesque route around the Tidal Basin and then along the Potomac River and crossing the Arlington Memorial Bridge before turning back.

A resident of Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park, Roy makes his next run in the US in the Woodrow Wilson Bridge half marathon in Alexandria on October 5 with his daughter.

Roy, who switched over to half-marathons after a spinal injury in November 2011, took to running marathons at the age of 52.

By the age of 75, he had completed 82 races and went on to complete his 100th marathon in January 2010.

A retired wing commander of the Indian Air Force, he ran his 115th marathon in Mumbai in January 2013.

Ashis Roy started running marathons at the age of 52.