2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea

2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in South Korea
Seoul
Pyeongtaek
Daejeon
Asan
Hwaseong
Busan
Daegu
Yongin
Sokcho
Gyeongju
Sunchang
Jeju
Boryeong
Hospital where confirmed MERS cases were exposed
Location where confirmed MERS cases visited[1]
Date 20 May 2015 – 28 July 2015
Location South Korea
Casualties
  • Cases: 186[2]
  • Deaths: 36

An outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus occurred in South Korea from May 2015 to July 2015.[3] The virus, which causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), was a newly emerged betacoronavirus that was first identified in a patient from Saudi Arabia in April 2012. From the outbreak, a total of 186 cases have been infected, with a death toll of 36.

Outbreak

South Korea reported its first MERS case on 20 May 2015.[4] A 68-year-old man returning from the Middle East was diagnosed with MERS nine days after he initially sought medical help.[5]

Table

The following table shows the daily statistics on the number of infected persons since 20 May 2015, based on the official report of the Central MERS Management Task Force, Ministry of Health and Welfare at the beginning of each day.[2][6]

^*1 Includes a case reported in China[7]

^*2 Parentheses indicate interim value

Graphs

Main transmission route and event timeline

  1. ^ "Re: Why the panic? South Korea’s MERS response questioned". www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h3403/rr. 2 July 2015. 

Hospitals

The government was criticized for underestimating the danger of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus and hesitating to announce facts to public. It was only on 6 June 2015 that South Korean officials released the names of all the health facilities where MERS victims had been treated or visited.[8]

On 7 June 2015, the South Korean government released the names of 24 MERS-affected hospitals to the public.[9] These hospitals include the Pyeongtaek St. Mary's (SeongMo) Hospital (평택성모병원) and the Seoul Samsung Hospital (삼성서울병원), an affiliate of Samsung Medical Center.[10][11][12]

Hospitals where confirmed MERS cases were exposed, as of 12 July 2015, 11:00[13]
HospitalKorean nameCity/ProvinceNo. of cases
Samsung Medical Centre삼성서울병원Gangnam-gu/ Seoul 90
Pyeongtaek St. Mary’s Hospital평택성모병원 Pyeongtaek/ Gyeonggi Province 37
Dae Cheong Hospital대청병원Seo-gu/ Daejeon 14
KonYang University Hospital건양대학교병원 Seo-gu/ Daejeon 11
Hallym University Medical Centre한림대학교동탄성심병원 Hwaseong/ Gyeonggi Province6
Gangdong Gyeonghee University Hospital 강동경희대학교의대병원 Gangdong-gu/ Seoul5
Gunguk University Hospital건국대병원 Gwangjin-gu/ Seoul4
Pyeongtaek Good Morning Hospital평택굿모닝병원 Pyeongtaek/ Gyeonggi Province4
Asan Seoul Clinic아산서울의원Asan / Chungnam Province1
Yangji Samsung Medical Center양지 서울삼성의원 Yongin/ Gyeonggi Province1
365 Yeol Lin Clinic365 열린의원 Gangdong-gu/ Seoul 1
Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital가톨릭대학교 여의도성모병원 Yeongdeungpo-gu/ Seoul1
Asan Medical Center서울아산병원 Songpa-gu/ Seoul 1
Good gang-an Hospital좋은강안병원 Suyeong-gu/ Busan1
Dr. Song Clinic송태의 내과 Songpa-gu/ Seoul 1
Others (outside hospitals, under investigation) 7
Total 186

Related incidents

On 26 May 2015, a 44-year-old South Korean man, his father and elder sister being confirmed to be infected by MERS, paid no notice to a doctor's advice or a self quarantine order from the government, and arrived in Huizhou through Hong Kong for a business trip. When he was found to have a fever, the man was suspected of being dishonest with border quarantine officers in Hong Kong by concealing that he had been to hospital on 16 May for nearly 4 hours to visit his father.[14] He has tested positive for MERS.[15]

On 30 May 2015, a website said that a driver in Huizhou who transported a South Korean male MERS patient was suspected to be infected but later the government clarified that this was a rumor.[16]

A Chinese fugitive who stayed in South Korea for 3 years turned himself in as he was afraid of the outbreak. He arrived at Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport on 4 June.[17]

On 8 June 2015, a South Korean couple who did not follow the self-quarantine notice were found to have visited the Philippines on 6 June. They had visited the respective clinics in Sunchang County where a 72-year-old woman was confirmed positive for MERS after having visited the clinic for lumbago treatment. The couple said that they only knew that the 72-old women was a MERS positive patient only after reading the news.[18]

On 9 June 2015, two Hong Kong students from City University of Hong Kong doing a 3-month exchange program in Sungkyunkwan University were ordered by a professor to get out of the classroom as they refused to remove their protective masks. The professor also said that they were too sensitive to the outbreak because of the history of SARS in Hong Kong in 2003. Sungkyunkwan University replied that some professors saw wearing masks as impolite and said if students insist on wearing masks, they might be refused to give presentations in class and may be unable to graduate due to this. Affected students said this reflected that the South Korean public was not attentive to the threat of the MERS outbreak.[19]

On 14 June, a South Korean man was tested for the virus in Bratislava in Slovakia. He is currently being treated at a hospital in Bratislava.[20] On the same day, he was tested negative, now quarantined for being tested for additional causes.[21]

On 25 June, a South Korean man who had been treated at a Chinese hospital after being diagnosed with the MERS virus in late May, was released from the hospital and returned to South Korea.[22]

Effects

Education

The following table shows the number of schools which have been temporarily closed due to the outbreak:

Date Number of schools closed
2 June 2015 84[23]
3 June 2015 214[24]
4 June 2015 1,162[25]
5 June 2015 1,317[26]
7 June 2015 1,381 (7 in Gyeonggi Province)[27]
8 June 2015 1,970[28]
9 June 2015 2,208[29]
15 June 2015 475[30]

Economy

On 11 June 2015, South Korea's central bank cut interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to stem the economic fallout from the outbreak.[31]

South Korea's department store sales decreased by 16.5% compared to the same period last year, and retail shops also decreased 3.4%, according to the Minister of Strategy and Finance, as of June 17, 2015.[32]

As of 17 June 2015, 100,000 tourist visits to the nation had been cancelled.[32]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Hospitals with Known MERS Exposure (June 22)". Ministry of Health and Welfare. June 22, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "알림> 보도자료 목록 - '메르스' 검색결과" [Press release - Search result 'MERS'] (in Korean). Ministry of Health and Welfare. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  3. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33684981
  4. ↑ "S. Korea reports 23 new cases of MERS, bringing total to 87". Yonhap News Agency. 8 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  5. ↑ "South Korea MERS Outbreak Began With a Cough". The Wall Street Journal. 8 June 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
  6. ↑ "메르스 확진자 총 150명, 현재 120명 치료 중". Ministry of Health and Welfare. June 15, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)". World Health Organization.
  8. ↑ "MERS Prompts Hong Kong to Declare 'Red Alert' on South Korea Travel". REUTERS. 2015-06-09. Retrieved 2015-06-12.
  9. ↑ "S. Korea identifies 24 MERS-affected hospitals". Yonhap News Agency. 8 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "정부, 메르스 환자 발생·경유 병원 24곳 공개". The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean). 7 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  11. ↑ "메르스 병원 '24곳' 명단 공개… 경유병원만 '18곳'". www.moneyweek.co.kr (in Korean). 8 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  12. ↑ "MERS-Affected Hospitals". www.google.com. 8 June 2015. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  13. ↑ "Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)". World Health Organization.
  14. ↑ (traditional Chinese (HK))"疑中招韓男隱瞞病歷經港往惠州新沙士殺到". 蘋果日報. 2015-05-29. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  15. ↑ "China's first confirmed MERS case arrived from Korea via Hong Kong". 2015-05-29. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  16. ↑ (simplified Chinese)"广东惠州接MERS患者司机疑被传染 官方辟谣". China Central Television. 2015-05-30. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
  17. ↑ (simplified Chinese)"一外逃韩国经济犯担心染上MERS 权衡利弊回国自首". 北青网. 2015-06-05. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  18. ↑ "S. Korean couple under MERS suspicion visit PH". Manila Bulletin. 2015-06-08. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  19. ↑ "本月餘下南韓團或取消 交流生批韓缺防疫意識". TVB. 2015-06-08. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  20. ↑ "South Korea Mers outbreak: Man in Slovakia tested". BBC. 14 June 2015.
  21. ↑ "S. Korean in Slovakia tests negative for MERS". YonhapNewsAgency. 15 June 2015.
  22. ↑ "S. Korean MERS patient in China recovered, released from hospital". Yonhap News Agency. 26 June 2015.
  23. ↑ "‘메르스 불안’ 전국 학교 휴업 100곳 육박". KBS. 2015-06-02. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  24. ↑ 신상윤 (2015-06-03). "[메르스 쇼크]전국 214개교 휴교 또는 휴업…"학생 감염 막기위해 적극적 방역"". 헤럴드경제. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  25. ↑ 최희진, 박성진, 김보미 (2015-06-05). "메르스 방역, 서울이 뚫렸다… 감염 확진 서울 의사, 시민 1500여명과 접촉". Kyunghyang Shinmun. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  26. ↑ 박정양 (2015-06-05). "전국 1317개교 '메르스 휴업'…서울 99개교". 뉴스원. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  27. ↑ 김병덕 (2015-06-07). "서울·경기 1381개 유치원·학교 강제 휴업명령". 파이넨셜뉴스. Retrieved 2015-06-07.
  28. ↑ 노재현 (2015-06-08). "메르스 휴업 유치원·학교 1천970곳…전국 10곳 중 1곳". Yonhap News Agency. Retrieved 2015-06-08.
  29. ↑ 박정양 (2015-06-09). "전국 2208개 학교 '메르스 휴업'…오후 확산세 '주춤'". 뉴스원. Retrieved 2015-06-09.
  30. ↑ 노재현 (2015-06-15). "교육부 "메르스 휴업 유치원·학교 475곳"". 연합뉴스. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  31. ↑ "S Korea cuts interest rates to record low amid Mers concerns". BBC News. Retrieved 29 June 2015.
  32. 1 2 "South Korea MERS death toll at 20; 8 more cases diagnosed". CNN International. 17 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.

External links

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