The route of MERS entry into South Korea

(Baonghean.vn) - After returning from an 8-day trip to the Middle East, a 68-year-old South Korean man developed a cough and fever. He visited four medical facilities seeking treatment and inadvertently triggered an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), causing widespread panic among South Koreans.

South Korean students wear face masks to protect themselves against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

More than half of South Korea's infections were traced back to a hospital in Pyeongtaek, 65 km (40 miles) southwest of Seoul, where the infected man shared a room with another patient.

"The first infected patient was near another person in the ward, and the disease began to spread when he left the room for a check-up, sneezing and coughing in the hallway," said Kim Woo-joo, an infectious disease expert. Others were infected with the virus at three of the four medical facilities the man visited.

Officials did not disclose the specific hospital where the MERS patients were being treated, but facilities in Pyeongtaek have been closed and quarantined. A nurse there said there was a misunderstanding of the virus when the man was admitted. Medical staff said hospital personnel were not fully aware of the danger posed by the man's trip to the Middle East.

"We know a little bit, but his presence and contact were unavoidable for others in the hospital," a nurse who is in home isolation said by phone. She declined to be identified.

Health officials said that when the man admitted to the trip at a different hospital – where he was eventually diagnosed – he initially only told staff that he had visited Bahrain, a place not at risk from the MERS outbreak.

In fact, the man had also traveled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where MERS outbreaks have occurred and caused around 440 deaths. "We reported his case to the disease control center, but at that time he had already been to Bahrain, so his condition worsened," said a staff member at the hospital where he was diagnosed on May 20th.

Phuong Thao

(According to Reuters)