Fatality rate up to 16%

By Kim Rahn

Two more people have died from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), raising the total deaths from the virus to 29, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Thursday.

The fatality rate grew to 16.1 percent, which is significantly lower than the average world rate of 38.4 percent, but higher than the 10 percent figure experts initially expected in Korea when the epidemic started.

The two people were a 65-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman who was a caregiver. The deceased woman was exposed to a MERS patient on June 5 when she visited the Kyung Hee University Hospital in eastern Seoul with a man under her care. She was only placed on a monitoring list on June 18, despite showing symptoms of the disease on June 10.

She was then diagnosed with MERS on June 22, 12 days after her symptoms had started. As her condition had already become serious during that time, the woman died two days later.

The government is being criticized for poorly managing its monitoring list and thus making her condition untreatable by the time of her diagnosis. It countered that she was omitted from the monitoring list because the patient she was taking care of did not tell health officials she had accompanied him.

During the eight days between first showing symptoms and the start of her monitoring, the woman visited four hospitals, including Hallym University Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, one Oriental medicine clinic and four pharmacies in eastern Seoul.

The government urged people who visited these facilities to report to the authorities if they show any MERS symptoms. It is paying special attention to whether other patients or medical staffers at Hallym University Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital have been infected, as she visited a number of departments and wards there.

To prevent suspected patients’ omission from the monitoring list, the government now has all visitors to emergency rooms, including patients, guardians, ambulance workers and other staffers, leave their names and contact information.

In the meantime, one new MERS case has been confirmed, with total confirmed cases rising to 180. The 55-year-old man contracted the disease at Good GangAn Hospital in Busan.

Seven patients meanwhile have recovered and were released from quarantine facilities, raising the total to 74. The figure means that 41.1 percent of total confirmed patients have now recovered.

The 74 people recovered 12.4 days on average after being confirmed, and 18.3 days after first showing symptoms.

Some 2,640 are still in isolation for possible exposure to MERS patients.