Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
'Mystery pneumonia' patient remains stable
Researchers at a public health institute in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, examine samples collected from a Chinese woman to find the cause of her mysterious pneumonia symptoms, Thursday. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the previous day that the 36-year-old woman, who had visited the Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province in December, showed symptoms of an illness with an unknown cause that is spreading there. /Yonhap
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
The health authorities said Friday that the first patient to be placed under quarantine here for a suspected pneumonia-like illness that has reached epidemic proportions in China, remains stable.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said the pneumonia symptoms of the 36-year-old Chinese woman had improved.
Tests for streptococcus-, mycoplasma-, Legionella- and chlamydia- pneumoniae, psittacosis, enterovirus and coccidioides are currently being conducted after the woman tested negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
“The additional test results will take one more week,” said Kim Eun-kyung, a director of the KCDC's emerging infectious disease response division.
As of Jan. 8, 29 people who had been in contact with the woman were being monitored by the epidemiological investigation team, but none have exhibited symptoms so far.
The woman was diagnosed with pneumonia Tuesday following two trips to China last month. She had visited Wuhan, the capital of central Hubei Province, but told doctors that she had no contact with animals while she was there and didn't visit a seafood market where most cases have been traced to in China.
The KCDC also conducted nine respiratory tests including for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), influenza and the respiratory syncytial virus ― all of which were negative.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday that the Chinese health authorities had identified a new type of coronavirus as a possible cause after a preliminary assessment conducted by a team of experts there. But, the Chinese government has not yet publicly issued an official statement in that regard.
“Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that range from the common cold to SARS. Some cause less-severe disease, some more severe, some transmit easily from person to person, while others don't,” said the WHO in a statement.
Most coronaviruses result in mild symptoms like the common cold, but they fall under the same family as SARS and MERS, both of which killed hundreds during their outbreaks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
SARS started in mainland China and spread as far as the U.S. and Canada, causing over 700 deaths worldwide during the 2003 epidemic, the CDC said.
The KCDC said it has been taking necessary quarantine steps, including tightened monitoring of people entering from China, and recommending travelers to avoid contact with animals. It also strongly recommended people to maintain good personal hygiene, and asked them to immediately seek medical attention if they feel sick after traveling there.