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MERS in South Korea
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South Korea on
Wednesday reported eight new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS),
while another person infected with the virus died, health officials said,
bringing to 20 the number of fatalities in the outbreak that began last month.
A total of 162 people in South Korea have been
infected in the outbreak, the largest outside Saudi Arabia. It has been traced
to a 68-year-old South Korean man who returned from a business trip to the
Middle East in early May.
Reuters reports South Korea's health ministry said
19 people diagnosed with the MERS virus had recovered and been discharged from
hospital since the outbreak began.
The latest MERS patient to die in South Korea was a
54-year-old woman who had bronchiectasis and high blood pressure. All of the
people to die in the outbreak had existing ailments or were elderly.
All of the infections known to have occurred in
South Korea have taken place in healthcare facilities. Three hospitals have
been at least partially shut and two have been locked down with patients and
medical staff inside.
More than 6,500 people are in quarantine, either at
home or in health facilities.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called the
South Korean outbreak "large and complex".
The eight new cases reported on Wednesday marked an
uptick from the four and five on the previous two days, but below double-digit
daily increases reported last week.
MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same
family as the one that triggered China's deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The vast majority of
MERS infections and deaths have been in Saudi Arabia, where more than 1,000
people have been infected since 2012, and about 454 have died.
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