South Korean authorities have identified the man who first brought MERS to Korea after traveling to the Middle East:
The World Health Organization warned that the MERS outbreak in South Korea is likely to grow, as the number of people under quarantine crept up to 1,369 on Wednesday.
The Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed five new cases — increasing the number of people with the disease to 35. These new cases were contracted within hospitals.
So far, three people have died after contracting the respiratory virus in South Korea, the country’s Health Ministry said Thursday, in the largest MERS outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.
The first case, concerning a man who returned to South Korea after traveling to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain, was reported on May 20. The person had not been ill during his travels, according to the World Health Organization.
More than 900 schools have shut to prevent the spread of the virus, according to South Korea’s education ministry. [CNN]
You can read more at the link, but the Park Guen-hye government is taking a lot of criticism for not reacting better to the initial outbreak. I don’t see how the government is to blame for a lack of a hospital not taking the first case seriously from the start. It seems that once the virus spread the government formed a task force to begin to take measures to stop the spread, but the initial poor handling from the hospital is what is really to blame. However that is the way it goes in Korea where the President tends to get blamed for everything that goes wrong. It will be interesting to see if the Korean left tries to capitalize on this politically?
Also of interest is that South Korea has closed over 900 schools while us military schools remain open. It will be interesting to see how long the US military schools remain open if there is any more spread of the virus on Osan AB for example.
It is pretty bad that a healthcare provider would violate a quarantine and put this many people at risk of contracting the MERS virus:
A medical doctor in Seoul came into contact with over 1,000 citizens while infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the city government said Thursday, sparking concerns of the further spread of the deadly virus.
The doctor, who works for a large general hospital in the capital city, attended large-scale events on the weekend, even after he was ordered into quarantine last week for showing suspected symptoms, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
“On Saturday, the doctor attended the union meeting for the reconstruction of an apartment complex in Gaepo-dong, Seoul, which was attended by a total of 1,565 local people,” Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said in an emergency briefing.
“He also attended two meetings of medical societies he is affiliated with on Saturday and Sunday, and visited several other public places,” he added.
On Monday, he was confirmed as testing positive for MERS and sent to a public facility for MERS patients. He contracted the virus after coming into contact with the country’s 14th MERS patient at the hospital where he works, according to the city officials.
Criticizing the central government for not sharing the relevant information with the municipal government and not doing enough to contain the virus, the mayor vowed “to devise the city’s own countermeasures to protect citizens.” [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but the MERS virus has now killed 3 people in Korea and continues to spread. I don’t know how the Korean medical community works, but it seems to me this should be something that should be grounds for removing his medical license.
The Stars and Stripes has an article published now that discusses how a ROK Air Force servicemember has been hospitalized for MERS. Of further interest to those at Osan AB is that schools will remain open for now despite the MERS outbreak:
DODEA Pacific spokesman Charly Hoff said there are no plans to close military schools in South Korea.
“However, the health and well-being of our students and employees remain top priorities, and we are closely monitoring the situation in conjunction with military leaders and health experts,” he said. “Should an operational change become necessary, the principal at the local school will promptly notify students, parents and employees directly.” [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but of further interest is that the ROK Air Force servicemember said he caught MERS while being treated for a fracture at a hospital. It seems that many of these infections are caused by people visiting the hospital where other MERS patients are. Hopefully the Korean hospitals take extra precautions to stop the spread of the virus within hospitals.
For everyone stationed on Osan Airbase here is something to definitely be aware of:
An Air Force officer was isolated at a military hospital on Wednesday under suspicions he may be infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), military officials said.
If confirmed, it would be the first case of the infection of the deadly respiratory virus in the South Korean military.
The chief master sergeant at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, whose identity was withheld, tested positive for MERS, the officials said.
They said the military instantly isolated him and some 100 soldiers stationed at the same air base at a military hospital and their homes to prevent further infection on the base.
“We isolated a number of soldiers suspected to have contracted the disease to prevent its spread by minimizing others’ contacts with those we suspect are infected,” one of the officials said requesting not to be named. “The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will determine whether he has been infected or not on Thursday or later,” the official said.
The officer previously had been hospitalized for a fracture at a civilian facility in Gyeonggi Province that treated MERS patients, based on which the military conducted epidemiological research.
He, however, is not showing symptoms of the disease such as a fever or cough, the officials said.
South Korea has placed more than 1,300 people in quarantine with 30 testing positive for the respiratory virus since the first case of the disease was reported on May 21. On Tuesday, two of the 30 MERS patients died, sparking panic among some locals and forcing over 500 schools to close. [Yonhap]
Hopefully base leadership is emphasizing taking appropriate precautions to prevent the spread of the disease on Osan. Tight barracks space with shared facilities is a perfect place for a disease like this to spread. This whole spread of MERS has shown how minor the whole anthrax incident USFK recently had really was.
For those that did not know desecrating the Korean flag can lead to criminal charges:
Seoul Metropolitan Police filed on May 31 for an arrest warrant against a 24-year old Korean man, identified only by his surname Kim, for flag desecration. According to the Hankyoreh, Kim “burned a piece of paper showing an image of the South Korean flag while facing off with police who had erected a vehicle barricade at a memorial demonstration for the first anniversary of the Sewol ferry sinking.” [Marmot’s Hole]
You can read a lot more about the criminal charges at the link, but ultimately the Seoul District Court decided to reject the arrest warrant for the protester because the man was emotionally not himself at the time. It is still interesting though that the Korean authorities do have the option to pursue such charges and this may be why I have never seen any Koreans before burning the Taeguki.
The outbreak of MERS in South Korea has now turned deadly:
South Korea on Tuesday reported the first two deaths from an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that has affected 25 people in two weeks.
A 58-year-old woman who had had contact with South Korea’s first patient died of acute respiratory failure on Monday, the Health Ministry said. A 71-year-old man who had been on respiratory support with a history of kidney ailments also died.
The ministry reported new confirmed cases on Tuesday, bringing the total to 25. South Korea now has the third highest number of cases after Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. [Reuters]
This seems like a common sense thing to do to stop the spread of MERS:
A Chinese tourist, wearing a facial mask, visits Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul on June 1, 2015, as South Korea confirmed three additional cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that day, raising the number of patients diagnosed with the illness to 18. (Yonhap)
The South Korean government is moving to place a temporary ban on people exposed to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) from leaving the country, officials said Monday, as part of efforts to prevent the disease from spreading.
The move comes as a South Korean man, despite having come in close contact with a MERS patient and developing possible symptoms of the potentially deadly disease, left for China last week.
The 44-year-old man has since been diagnosed with the disease and is in isolation at a Chinese hospital.
The move also came as the country reported three more confirmed cases of MERS earlier Monday, bringing the total number of people infected with the disease to 18.
The latest infected people had been in the same hospital where the country’s first MERS case was reported. Two of them were patients in the hospital, while the other person is a son of another patient who had visited the hospital to care for his parent, the Health Ministry said. [Korea Times]
