New MERS case reported in S Korea; no more deaths
South Korean health officials have reported a new case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the potentially deadly illness continues to affect more people in the East Asian nation.
South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare reported on Saturday that the patient brings the total number of people diagnosed with the disease to 182.
The new South Korean case involved a nurse at a hospital in the eastern part of the capital, Seoul, who contracted the virus while treating a patient.
Of the 182 confirmed MERS cases, 90 people have been discharged following complete recovery, 61 are still being hospitalized with 13 listed in a critical condition, and another 31 have died.
The Health Ministry says most of those who have died from MERS had existing health conditions, which were apparently exacerbated by the infection. The fatality rate of the disease in South Korea currently remains at around 17 percent.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the MERS outbreak in South Korea as "large and complex." The outbreak has been traced to a 68-year-old South Korean man, who was diagnosed with the infection after returning from a business trip to the Middle East in early May.
There are 2,467 people in quarantine, mostly at their own homes, as of Saturday for possible infection after coming in close contact with MERS patients. The number was down from 2,931 recorded the previous day.
MERS, a cousin of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), causes coughing, fever, pneumonia and kidney failure but it does not appear to be as contagious as SARS, which killed some 800 people in a 2003 epidemic.
The vast majority of MERS infections and deaths have been reported in Saudi Arabia, where more than 950 people have been infected and 412 died from the illness.
There is no vaccine for MERS which has a mortality rate of 35 percent, according to the WHO.
MP/NN/HRB
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