By Kim Rahn
Health authorities confirmed two additional cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), caused by a deadly new virus, Thursday, only one day after reporting the first case.
Sixty-four people including the patients’ family members and medical staff who were in close proximity to them were also quarantined for tests.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) raised the alert level for MERS from the lowest level of “attention” to “caution,” Wednesday, when the first patient was confirmed.
The first patient, aged 68, is under treatment in an isolation ward and is in stable condition. The unidentified man stayed in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates from mid-April for agricultural business and returned to Korea on May 4 via Qatar. He experienced a high fever and coughing afterward.
On Thursday, the KCDC said his wife, who suffered from respiratory illnesses, was infected with the disease as well. She is also stable in an isolation ward.
A 76-year-old man, who shared a room at the hospital with the first patient, was confirmed to have the disease.
The authorities are now examining the 64 people who the three came into contact with, including other patients at hospitals they visited before the infection was confirmed. They will have to stay in isolation wards for up to 14 days, the incubation period of the disease.
“We need to watch the situation for three to four weeks to determine whether the disease is spreading further,” KCDC Director Yang Byung-guk said in a media briefing.
MERS is a new viral strain discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It is mildly contagious, but has a fatality rate of 40 percent, about threefold that of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Some 1,142 cases have been confirmed in 23 countries, among which 465 died. Almost 98 percent of the cases were in the Middle East.
No vaccine or treatment is available for the disease yet.
After an incubation period of two to 14 days, infected people show a high fever, coughing and respiratory distress, which can lead to lung failure or kidney irregularities.
It is thought that camels transmit the disease, as many of the infected people showed symptoms after visiting camel farms or markets or having a camel ride. But some contracted the disease without contact.
Following the outbreak, the authorities have strengthened quarantine measures for passengers from the Middle East, checking their temperatures and asking them to submit health check reports at Incheon International Airport.
The government does not plan to limit travel to and from the Middle Eastern countries. The World Health Organization also said in February that the epidemic was not serious enough to limit trips, trade and transportation among countries.