ed MERS over the long haul
Effort to contain and treat epidemic must be in full force
Nearly a month after the first Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) patient was diagnosed here, Korea must prepare itself for an uncomfortable co-habitation with the MERS virus. Defying hope-laced anticipation that MERS would soon subside, fourth-generation patients have emerged and several confirmed patients afflicted during the “second wave” started at Samsung Medical Center have become possible “super spreaders” of the disease.
As the toll continues to spiral up — 19 deaths, more than 150 confirmed patients and more than 5,000 quarantined — it is hard to dispel the disappointment toward the health authorities who are repeating missteps of failing to communicate with the health facilities, local governments and the public.
Yet the current situation does not allow for panic or fault-finding for the moment. The latter, the country can and must do later. The MERS virus outbreak in Korea, the biggest outside of Saudi Arabia, is showing itself to be “complex” as the team of experts from the World Health Organization has said. Cases that defy claims made by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on May 21 about MERS are emerging. The maximum incubation period of the MERS virus seems to be longer in Korea — up to 16 to 18 days from the initial forecast of 14 days. There are confirmed patients who did not come into close contact or within two meters of another MERS patient. Two patients who had no previous illnesses have died. Different from the earlier claim that MERS afflicted mostly the older population, 40 percent of the patients in Korea are younger than 50.
On the front lines, authorities and hospitals have shown that they did not properly deal with the second wave of transmissions at Samsung Medical Center (SMC). The government only belatedly sent in a quarantine inspection and survey team to SMC after largely leaving it up to the hospital to carry out the epidemiological study and the tracking down of suspected patients. The SMC has acknowledged it did not initially monitor the medical staffer patient No. 137 and the doctor patient No. 138 — two possible super-spreaders — during the so-called second wave of affliction.
At this point, the authorities must pool all available resources to trace the suspected patients and treat confirmed patients. People who are submitted to being tracked down or tests or quarantine should comply to their utmost ability, rather than resist. But most of all, the government must use this opportunity to strengthen its epidemiological and preventive capabilities against an illness and an epidemic. The MERS virus has provided that invaluable lesson.