Value context and insight. lkm@koreatimes.co.kr
More infections feared
Fans of two-member boy band TVXQ are checked for fever before entering a concert hall in Seoul, Sunday. / Yonhap
By Lee Kyung-min
WHO team criticizes government for inept initial response
By Lee Kyung-min
South Korea may have to dig in for a drawn-out battle against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) because the current outbreak is “large and complex,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Saturday.
After a weeklong on-site review, the WHO predicted that more people will contract the disease.
“Because the outbreak has been large and complex, more cases are anticipated,” Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general of health security, said during a press conference.
He released the results of the WHO’s joint study with a South Korean team led by Lee Jong-koo, head of the Center for Global Medicine at Seoul National University.
Lee said public confusion about the outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) resulted from the government’s inept initial response to the disease.
“Absence of a governance system and the government’s failure to assess the impact of the outbreak made things worse,” Lee said.
Members of the joint team included eight WHO officials and eight local experts.
Contrary to public fears that the virus is adapting to make people more susceptible to infection, Lee said change is not currently possible.
“Based on available sequencing studies of this virus, the virus does not appear to have changed to make itself more transmissible,” he said.
The Korean custom of the ill being taken care by family members contributed to the spread of the virus in a relatively short time, according to the joint team.
“Frequent visiting to hospitalize patients by many friends and family members played a large part too,” they said.
Diagnosis and precautionary measures were belatedly sought by physicians because they were unfamiliar with the virus, they added.
Over-crowded emergency rooms and many patients staying in one room in some hospitals were not optimal control measures.
Moreover, the habit of some patients here seeking care at a number of different medical facilities caused a rapid spread of the virus, they added.
To prevent it spreading further, the team recommended that tracing, monitoring and quarantining those who have had contact with those infected and strengthening laboratory testing.
“Early and complete identification of all contacts, quarantining or isolating and monitoring all contacts including suspected cases is required,” they said.
They also recommended that such people should be banned from traveling internationally.