MERS patients on steady rise

By Kim Rahn

Concerns are growing that Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), may spread quickly here, as the number of infected people is steadily increasing.

Only hours after health authorities confirmed a fifth case of the illness, another suspected case was reported in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province, Wednesday.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said that the patient is a 25-year-old woman from Jeongeup who stayed in Algeria for four months and returned home on Saturday via Qatar.

She has been ordered to stay at home and will be moved to an isolation room on Thursday for tests.

However, the KCDC said that the chances of her developing a full-blown infection are low because she has mild cold symptoms, no fever and had stayed mainly within northern Africa, not the Middle East.

But if she is confirmed to have contracted the virus, it will be separate to five related cases — a 68-year-old man, the first patient; his wife; a 76-year-old man who shared a hospital room with him; the second man’s daughter; and a doctor who treated the first patient. The KCDC did not disclose the precise location of these patients but they are believed to be in Seoul and the surrounding metropolitan area.

Earlier on Wednesday, the KCDC confirmed the fifth case, the doctor who treated the first patient at a clinic in Seoul. This is the first time that a medical worker has become infected with the virus.

The doctor was ordered to stay at home since the first patient was confirmed, but showed a high fever on Monday and was transferred to an isolation ward for tests. A nurse who was also tested was confirmed not to have the illness.

While it is known to be mildly contagious, the infection in Korea seems to have spread unusually quickly because the number of cases rose to five in only six days with another suspected.

According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Korea reported the largest number of MERS cases among non-Middle Eastern countries. This is followed by Britain with four patients; and Germany and Tunisia, with three patients each.

Before Korea, Asia had only three MERS cases — one in Malaysia and two in the Philippines.

It is known that one MERS patient transmits the illness to 0.6 to 0.8 people. It is not very contagious, considering that a measles patient spreads the illness to more than 10 people.

But the first patient in Korea transmitted MERS to four people.

KDCD officials say that this may be because he did not tell doctors about his trips to the Middle East early on.

“He first talked about the travel to medical staff days after he began to show symptoms of MERS on May 11 and it became contagious,” said a KDCD official. “While doctors were unaware of the possibility of MERS, four people who contacted him were infected. If he had told about the trips earlier, doctors would have been able to take more timely and proper measures.”

They said there could be more cases among 61 people who were ordered to stay at home due to having had previous contact with the patients, but added that a new outbreak was unlikely. However, this prediction appears wrong, following the suspected case in Jeongeup.

Regarding the spread of the illness, Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo expressed regret, especially over the KCDC’s rejection of the fourth patient’s voluntary request for tests and quarantine.

“We’ll take stronger and preemptive measures, strengthening quarantine and examining suspected cases more rapidly,” he said.