MERS phobia spreads to China
Health authorities take flak for poor control
By Jung Min-ho
Yang Byung-kook, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, wipes sweat off his forehead during a press briefing on the MERS outbreak, at the government complex in Sejong City, Thursday. / Yonhap
The health authorities are coming under mounting criticism following reports that a Korean man suspected of having contracted Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) was allowed to leave for China.
After finding out that the 44-year-old went to China by plane on a business trip a day after being tested, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDCP) notified the Chinese health authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) of his departure.
The KCDCP said Chinese doctors are currently conducting medical checks on the man to find out whether he is infected with the virus, which has a fatality rate of around 40 percent and no specific treatment.
If tests come back positive, he will be the first MERS patient confirmed in China.
With two more patients confirmed by the KCDCP, Thursday, there are a total of seven people with MERS in Korea, the largest number among all Asian and European countries.
The suspected patient was supposed to be under close monitoring because he showed clear indications of having contracted MERS, including a high fever. He was the son of the third man identified with the illness and the brother of the fourth, the KCDCP said.
Yet he had no problems passing through immigration inspections at Incheon International Airport and getting on a plane, which had 166 passengers on board.
This highlights the KCDCP’s ineptitude in handling cases of MERS, which the disease control center said “has little risk” of spreading further when it confirmed the first patient a week ago. Some worry that a MERS epidemic could break out in Korea.
“We should have checked more actively and broadly on family related issues. We are deeply sorry about that,” KCDCP Director Yang Byung-kook told reporters.
“I gave the Chinese health authorities a list of 28 people who sat nearby him on the plane. A total of 166 passengers were there, with 83 Koreans including flight attendants.”
The suspected MERS patient was advised not to travel by his doctors after his fever rose to 38.6 degrees Celsius, Monday, Yang said.
He was among 60 people who have been quarantined in their own homes after coming into close contact with the first Korean patient, who reportedly was infected with the MERS virus while traveling to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in April.
The man’s 76-year-old father, who had shared a hospital ward room with the first patient, was the third person to be diagnosed with MERS.
The two new cases came from people placed in isolation at their own homes after coming into close contact with the first patient.
One of the two new patients is a 71-year-old man who had shared a hospital room with the first patient. The second is a 28-year-old female nurse from the hospital.
Both of them have been moved to KCDCP-designated hospitals for quarantine, Yang said.
The KCDCP has come under criticism for not moving quickly and effectively enough to isolate suspected patients, making the outbreak more difficult to contain.
In fact, all cases arose from the KCDCP’s failure to keep the first patient under control. Also, when the fourth patient voluntarily asked the KCDCP to test her and place her in an isolation ward, it rejected her request because her fever was not “high enough.”
According to the WHO, more than 1,100 cases have been confirmed, of which 98 percent were in the Middle East. Infected people experience a high fever, coughing and respiratory distress.