S Korea Health Ministry confirms new MERS case
South Korean health officials have reported a new case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the number of individuals infected with the potentially deadly virus in the East Asian nation continues to rise.
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 185.
The new South Korean case involved a doctor from Samsung Medical Center in the capital, Seoul. The hospital has so far accounted for almost half of all confirmed MERS cases in South Korea.
Last month, South Korean officials declared a 10-day suspension of most health services at the medical facility to contain the spread of the MERS virus. However, the shutdown was extended indefinitely as the hospital continued to report new cases. A total of 88 people are known to have caught the MERS virus at Samsung Medical Center.
Of the 185 confirmed MERS cases, 111 people have been discharged following complete recovery, 41 are still being hospitalized with 11 listed as being in critical condition, and another 33 have died.
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 were 1,434 people in quarantine by early Saturday for possible infection, down from 2,067 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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