|
 The government has promised to do everything it can to end the
outbreak which began in South Korea last month when an infected
South Korean man brought it back from a business trip to the Middle
East.
With 41 cases, South Korea has the most infections outside the
Middle East where the disease first appeared in 2012, and where most
of the 440 fatalities have been.
As the number of infections in South Korea rises daily, fear and
anger are growing. South Korea's neighbors are also increasingly
concerned.
Memories are still fresh in Asia of Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in 2002-2003 and killed about 800
people worldwide. MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same
family as the one that caused SARS.
Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo accused authorities in the capital,
Seoul, of giving out incorrect information about a case which he
said would spread alarm and undermine the fight against the disease.
On Thursday, city officials accused national authorities of being
slow to share information, in particular about a doctor who had
treated a MERS patient and subsequently went to a May 30 gathering
attended by more than 1,500 people.
The doctor was later diagnosed with MERS and the people at the
gathering have been advised to stay in voluntary quarantine.
Moon rejected assertions his ministry had mishandled the case.
"The announcement by the city of Seoul yesterday has parts that are
not factual and can increase public concern," he said.
The comments would only hurt the credibility of the government's
effort to stamp out MERS, he said.
PRESSURE
The most recent MERS patient to die was a 76-year-old man who had
been in the same ward as other MERS patients and had been suffering
from various ailments including cancer, the Health Ministry said.
Five more people were confirmed to be carrying the disease, bringing
the total number of South Koreans with MERS to 41.
More than 1,000 schools have shut as fear has spread.
Traffic has been light in parts of Seoul where schools are located
and many people are wearing face masks on the streets.
Bowing to public pressure, the Health Ministry released the name of
the hospital where most of the cases have been diagnosed.
[to top of second column] |
More than 3,000 people, including 1,565 who were at the May 30
meeting that the doctor attended, have been advised to stay at home
in voluntary quarantine or have been quarantined at medical
facilities.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has not recommended travel
restrictions but thousands of people from mainland China, Hong Kong
and Taiwan had canceled trips to South Korea.
Japan said it was looking into possible quarantine measures for
people arriving from South Korea while medical institutions and the
military were being told to get ready to respond.
China last week reported its first case, that of a South Korean man
who tested positive after breaking voluntary quarantine and
traveling to Hong Kong and on to mainland China.
Chinese media said health authorities had been told to step up
vigilance, especially given that many Chinese Muslims would travel
to the Middle East on pilgrimage later in the year.
All of South Korea's cases have been traced to the man who visited
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the countries with the
most MERS cases.
It took several days for the 68-year-old to be diagnosed, during
which time he infected people at health facilities.
Investigators at one facility he visited had found evidence of MERS
in air conditioning filters, said preventive medicine expert Choi
Bo-youl. Thirty of South Korea's cases had been linked to the
facility, although experts say there are no reported cases of MERS
transmission by air.
MERS has a much higher death rate than SARS, at about 38 percent,
according to WHO figures, but it does not spread as easily as SARS.
South Korea's new cases bring the total number globally to about
1,185, based on WHO data, with at least 443 related deaths.
(Additional reporting by Seungyun Oh; Editing by Tony Munroe and
Robert Birsel)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
