ANKARA
Turkish health authorities have designated 49 hospitals in 43 provinces with suspected MERS cases to be put under medical observation, as part of its measures against the deadly disease.
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, also known as MERS, killed one person in Turkey on Oct. 11 --- a worker who had been in Jeddah of Saudi Arabia, where the potentially lethal virus has spread.
Earlier, 45 hospitals in 36 provinces were also designated by the Turkish health ministry as part of precautions against another fatal virus, Ebola.
MERS has killed 319 people in total since 2012, the World Health Organization said on Friday -- giving the disease a fatality rate of 27%.
Along with Saudi Arabia, MERS has also been reported in countries as far apart as Egypt, Germany, Greece, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Turks who had gone to Hajj or Umrah are being monitored by family doctors across the country, as they were under particular threat of being infected with the virus.
No Ebola cases have been recorded in Turkey thus far.
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