![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
aki-san.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
omonatheydidFear of MERS Virus Leads Over 230 South Korean Schools to Close
Tourists wearing protective masks in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. Alarm was growing in the country over an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome.
SEOUL, South Korea — More than 230 schools in South Korea have temporarily shut down, officials said on Wednesday, as fears of Middle East respiratory syndrome spread through the country.
Thirty South Koreans have tested positive for the virus that causes the disease, which has killed hundreds of people, mostly in Saudi Arabia. The outbreak in South Korea is the largest reported outside the Middle East, where the virus first emerged in 2012 and where a vast majority of the more than 1,100 cases and over 470 deaths reported have occurred.
Two of the South Korean patients died on Monday, and three others were in critical condition, health officials said on Wednesday. The authorities were also awaiting test results for 99 people suspected of being infected. The number of people isolated at home or in state-run quarantine centers while officials monitored them for symptoms had risen to 1,364 from 790 a day earlier.
So far in South Korea, all the reported cases of the syndrome, known as MERS, were found among medical staff members, patients or visitors at five hospitals. But the school closings were just one demonstration of a widespread public suspicion about the government’s response to the situation.
“A lot of fear we see now is rooted in the distrust of the government and what it says,” said Yu Min-yeong, head of Acase, a crisis management consulting firm based in Seoul.
The World Health Organization said that although a large outbreak outside the Middle East was a new development, it was not recommending any travel or trade restrictions on South Korea.
“There is no reason for people to panic, and nothing so far that suggests to me that the virus has changed to become more dangerous,” said Dr. Allison McGeer, an expert on infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
Still, as the number of cases grew, alarm increased in South Korea, where many people remain traumatized by the sinking of the Sewol ferry in April last year, a disaster that killed 304 people. The high death toll has often been attributed to the government’s failure to respond quickly in the hours immediately after the accident.
Many South Koreans have canceled hospital appointments for fear of infection — a concern critics say was fueled in part by the government’s decision not to reveal the names and locations of the five hospitals where cases have been discovered. Stores have reported a surge in sales of hand-sanitizing products, which the government recommended as a precaution against the virus. The Defense Ministry has urged men to defer their army reserve training if they suspect MERS symptoms.
As officials have traced the path of the virus in the country, they have found evidence of careless infection control in its public health system. The first “index” patient, a 68-year-old employee of an agricultural products company, returned home on May 4 via Qatar after visiting Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia during the previous two weeks.
He developed a fever and cough, both symptoms of MERS, on May 11 and sought care at three clinics. But doctors did not suspect MERS because he did not tell them about his Middle East trip. A doctor and a nurse from those clinics later tested positive for the virus.
Staff members disinfecting students’ hands Wednesday at an elementary school in Seoul
It was not until May 18 that a doctor at a larger hospital asked the government authorities to test the man for the virus. Two days later, he was declared the country’s first MERS case. Twenty-four other cases have since been traced to that hospital.
One of them, a 44-year-old man who visited his father there, flew to China on May 26 via Hong Kong, although he had been advised by doctors to stay home. The penalty for ignoring such advice is a fine of up to 3 million won, or $2,700. He tested positive in China and was quarantined there last week.
Another patient, a 58-year-old woman, was infected through contact with the first patient but was released after treatment for asthma. The health authorities did not trace her at another hospital until Sunday. She died of MERS on Monday.
“We apologize for the inappropriate initial responses,” Moon Hyung-pyo, the minister of health and welfare, said during a news conference on Tuesday. “We were too relaxed.”
In yet another case, a 40-year-old man who stayed in the same hospital ward as the first patient to get treatment for pneumonia was released after his condition appeared to have improved. Officials traced him to another hospital on Sunday. The next day, two patients who shared a room with him there tested positive. They were the first tertiary, or third-generation, infections reported. Until then, the government had said that such third-generation cases were unlikely.
Government health officials said they had decided not to reveal the names of affected hospitals to prevent a panic surrounding them, a policy even some lawmakers from the governing Saenuri Party have criticized.
On Wednesday, the government offered cash payments to poor people who could not work while they were under government quarantine. The subsidies were announced amid concern that impoverished workers might be reluctant to report contacts with MERS patients for fear of losing their jobs.
The Education Ministry said it was advising schools to consider temporarily closing if they feared a mass infection among students. But during a news briefing on Wednesday, Kwon Jun-wook, a senior Health Ministry official, called the closing of schools “medically wrong.” Kim Woo-joo, head of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, also opposed the closing of schools, calling it too drastic a precaution.
MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused the deadly outbreak in China in 2003 of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. There is no vaccine. Health officials have said that evidence is mounting that dromedary camels could transmit the virus to humans through close contact.
Correction: June 3, 2015
An earlier version of this article misstated the year of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China. It was in 2003, not 2013.
South Korea grapples to contain MERS as 1,364 in quarantine
Hong Kong (CNN) - The World Health Organization warned that the MERS outbreak in South Korea is likely to grow, as 1,364 people remained under quarantine Wednesday and confirmed cases grew to 30 people.
So far, two people have died after contracting the respiratory virus in South Korea in the largest MERS outbreak outside Saudi Arabia. More than 540 schools have shut to prevent the spread of the virus, according to South Korea's education ministry.
The extent of the outbreak in South Korea has taken many by surprise -- mainly because the virus has not been shown to spread easily between humans and the health care system in the country is considered to be sophisticated and modern.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye acknowledged problems in the country's early response earlier this week.
"Initial reaction for new infectious diseases like MERS is very important, but there were some insufficiency in the initial response, including the judgment on its contagiousness," she said.
She convened an emergency MERS meeting on Wednesday.
MERS is in the same family of viruses as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) as well as the common cold. However, MERS does not spread easily between humans -- as far as scientists know at this point.
"So far, the virus has been circulating in humans for three years," said Dr. Leo Poon, a virology expert at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, who worked on the SARS outbreak more than a decade ago. "We found little transmission in human. We know there is human-to-human transmission, but it's not sustainable."
Then why is it spreading in South Korea?
Since MERS, short for Middle East respiratory syndrome, was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, international cases have largely been confined to travelers bringing the virus back to other countries and infecting one or two others. There have been deaths in countries like Oman, Algeria, and Malaysia -- but none of them had additional infections to the extent of South Korea.
"This is quite unusual. I think this is the only country, apart from those in the Middle East, that has such a number of cases," said Poon. "It's not entirely surprising. In the Middle East, people in Saudi Arabia had hospital outbreaks where a few people got infected. It's a similar situation at the moment."
In early 2013, 23 MERS cases in eastern Saudi Arabia were linked to a single outbreak extending through four health care facilities.
Similarly, the vast majority of the South Korean cases have been linked to infections from hospitals.
Another factor for the spread in South Korea could be the fact that family members often stay with patients in their hospital rooms to watch and care for their loved ones.
"With the hospital culture here, the family does a lot of the nursing. For general patients on the ward there are fewer nurses than we are accustomed to in the West," said Dr. John Linton of Yonsei University's Severance Hospital in Seoul. "They would have been in close proximity to other patients."
How did it start in South Korea?
The first patient, a 68-year-old man, had traveled to four Middle Eastern countries before returning to South Korea on May 4. During his flight, he did not have any symptoms.
As he started getting sick a week later, the Korean sought treatment at two clinics and two hospitals -- "creating multiple opportunities for exposure among health care workers and other patients," according to the WHO. MERS was not suspected and health care workers did not treat the first patient in isolation.
As a result, the MERS cases in South Korea span patients from several health care facilities. Health officials have not identified the hospitals, but 22 of the current cases are related to those who were at what's being called "Facility B." That hospital has closed voluntarily.
"Given the number of clinics and hospitals that cared for the index case, further cases can be expected," the WHO stated in a situation report on Wednesday.
Some of the infected people occupied the same room as the first patient and others had been in the same ward for times ranging from five minutes to several hours, according to the WHO.
How does MERS spread?
Concern about the virus is gripping many in South Korea, with schools shutting and the increased use of face masks and hand sanitizers.
The virus acts like a cold and attacks the respiratory system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. But symptoms, which include fever and a cough, are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure.
MERS spreads from close contact with an ill person, such as living or caring for them.
5 things to know about MERS
About three to four out of every 10 people reported with MERS have died. But the people who died often had underlying medical conditions that made them more vulnerable.
The two patients who died in South Korea had COPD and heavy asthma.
MERS has been linked to camels and it's possible that some people became infected after coming into contact with camels, but it's not completely clear.
There are no vaccines and no cures.
To prevent MERS, the CDC recommends everyday hygiene practices like hand-washing, covering coughs and sneezes, and avoiding personal contact with sick people.
Sources: The New York Times, CNN
Tourists wearing protective masks in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. Alarm was growing in the country over an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome.
SEOUL, South Korea — More than 230 schools in South Korea have temporarily shut down, officials said on Wednesday, as fears of Middle East respiratory syndrome spread through the country.
Thirty South Koreans have tested positive for the virus that causes the disease, which has killed hundreds of people, mostly in Saudi Arabia. The outbreak in South Korea is the largest reported outside the Middle East, where the virus first emerged in 2012 and where a vast majority of the more than 1,100 cases and over 470 deaths reported have occurred.
Two of the South Korean patients died on Monday, and three others were in critical condition, health officials said on Wednesday. The authorities were also awaiting test results for 99 people suspected of being infected. The number of people isolated at home or in state-run quarantine centers while officials monitored them for symptoms had risen to 1,364 from 790 a day earlier.
So far in South Korea, all the reported cases of the syndrome, known as MERS, were found among medical staff members, patients or visitors at five hospitals. But the school closings were just one demonstration of a widespread public suspicion about the government’s response to the situation.
“A lot of fear we see now is rooted in the distrust of the government and what it says,” said Yu Min-yeong, head of Acase, a crisis management consulting firm based in Seoul.
The World Health Organization said that although a large outbreak outside the Middle East was a new development, it was not recommending any travel or trade restrictions on South Korea.
“There is no reason for people to panic, and nothing so far that suggests to me that the virus has changed to become more dangerous,” said Dr. Allison McGeer, an expert on infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.
Still, as the number of cases grew, alarm increased in South Korea, where many people remain traumatized by the sinking of the Sewol ferry in April last year, a disaster that killed 304 people. The high death toll has often been attributed to the government’s failure to respond quickly in the hours immediately after the accident.
Many South Koreans have canceled hospital appointments for fear of infection — a concern critics say was fueled in part by the government’s decision not to reveal the names and locations of the five hospitals where cases have been discovered. Stores have reported a surge in sales of hand-sanitizing products, which the government recommended as a precaution against the virus. The Defense Ministry has urged men to defer their army reserve training if they suspect MERS symptoms.
As officials have traced the path of the virus in the country, they have found evidence of careless infection control in its public health system. The first “index” patient, a 68-year-old employee of an agricultural products company, returned home on May 4 via Qatar after visiting Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia during the previous two weeks.
He developed a fever and cough, both symptoms of MERS, on May 11 and sought care at three clinics. But doctors did not suspect MERS because he did not tell them about his Middle East trip. A doctor and a nurse from those clinics later tested positive for the virus.
Staff members disinfecting students’ hands Wednesday at an elementary school in Seoul
It was not until May 18 that a doctor at a larger hospital asked the government authorities to test the man for the virus. Two days later, he was declared the country’s first MERS case. Twenty-four other cases have since been traced to that hospital.
One of them, a 44-year-old man who visited his father there, flew to China on May 26 via Hong Kong, although he had been advised by doctors to stay home. The penalty for ignoring such advice is a fine of up to 3 million won, or $2,700. He tested positive in China and was quarantined there last week.
Another patient, a 58-year-old woman, was infected through contact with the first patient but was released after treatment for asthma. The health authorities did not trace her at another hospital until Sunday. She died of MERS on Monday.
“We apologize for the inappropriate initial responses,” Moon Hyung-pyo, the minister of health and welfare, said during a news conference on Tuesday. “We were too relaxed.”
In yet another case, a 40-year-old man who stayed in the same hospital ward as the first patient to get treatment for pneumonia was released after his condition appeared to have improved. Officials traced him to another hospital on Sunday. The next day, two patients who shared a room with him there tested positive. They were the first tertiary, or third-generation, infections reported. Until then, the government had said that such third-generation cases were unlikely.
Government health officials said they had decided not to reveal the names of affected hospitals to prevent a panic surrounding them, a policy even some lawmakers from the governing Saenuri Party have criticized.
On Wednesday, the government offered cash payments to poor people who could not work while they were under government quarantine. The subsidies were announced amid concern that impoverished workers might be reluctant to report contacts with MERS patients for fear of losing their jobs.
The Education Ministry said it was advising schools to consider temporarily closing if they feared a mass infection among students. But during a news briefing on Wednesday, Kwon Jun-wook, a senior Health Ministry official, called the closing of schools “medically wrong.” Kim Woo-joo, head of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, also opposed the closing of schools, calling it too drastic a precaution.
MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused the deadly outbreak in China in 2003 of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. There is no vaccine. Health officials have said that evidence is mounting that dromedary camels could transmit the virus to humans through close contact.
Correction: June 3, 2015
An earlier version of this article misstated the year of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China. It was in 2003, not 2013.
South Korea grapples to contain MERS as 1,364 in quarantine
Hong Kong (CNN) - The World Health Organization warned that the MERS outbreak in South Korea is likely to grow, as 1,364 people remained under quarantine Wednesday and confirmed cases grew to 30 people.
So far, two people have died after contracting the respiratory virus in South Korea in the largest MERS outbreak outside Saudi Arabia. More than 540 schools have shut to prevent the spread of the virus, according to South Korea's education ministry.
The extent of the outbreak in South Korea has taken many by surprise -- mainly because the virus has not been shown to spread easily between humans and the health care system in the country is considered to be sophisticated and modern.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye acknowledged problems in the country's early response earlier this week.
"Initial reaction for new infectious diseases like MERS is very important, but there were some insufficiency in the initial response, including the judgment on its contagiousness," she said.
She convened an emergency MERS meeting on Wednesday.
MERS is in the same family of viruses as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) as well as the common cold. However, MERS does not spread easily between humans -- as far as scientists know at this point.
"So far, the virus has been circulating in humans for three years," said Dr. Leo Poon, a virology expert at the School of Public Health at the University of Hong Kong, who worked on the SARS outbreak more than a decade ago. "We found little transmission in human. We know there is human-to-human transmission, but it's not sustainable."
Then why is it spreading in South Korea?
Since MERS, short for Middle East respiratory syndrome, was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012, international cases have largely been confined to travelers bringing the virus back to other countries and infecting one or two others. There have been deaths in countries like Oman, Algeria, and Malaysia -- but none of them had additional infections to the extent of South Korea.
"This is quite unusual. I think this is the only country, apart from those in the Middle East, that has such a number of cases," said Poon. "It's not entirely surprising. In the Middle East, people in Saudi Arabia had hospital outbreaks where a few people got infected. It's a similar situation at the moment."
In early 2013, 23 MERS cases in eastern Saudi Arabia were linked to a single outbreak extending through four health care facilities.
Similarly, the vast majority of the South Korean cases have been linked to infections from hospitals.
Another factor for the spread in South Korea could be the fact that family members often stay with patients in their hospital rooms to watch and care for their loved ones.
"With the hospital culture here, the family does a lot of the nursing. For general patients on the ward there are fewer nurses than we are accustomed to in the West," said Dr. John Linton of Yonsei University's Severance Hospital in Seoul. "They would have been in close proximity to other patients."
How did it start in South Korea?
The first patient, a 68-year-old man, had traveled to four Middle Eastern countries before returning to South Korea on May 4. During his flight, he did not have any symptoms.
As he started getting sick a week later, the Korean sought treatment at two clinics and two hospitals -- "creating multiple opportunities for exposure among health care workers and other patients," according to the WHO. MERS was not suspected and health care workers did not treat the first patient in isolation.
As a result, the MERS cases in South Korea span patients from several health care facilities. Health officials have not identified the hospitals, but 22 of the current cases are related to those who were at what's being called "Facility B." That hospital has closed voluntarily.
"Given the number of clinics and hospitals that cared for the index case, further cases can be expected," the WHO stated in a situation report on Wednesday.
Some of the infected people occupied the same room as the first patient and others had been in the same ward for times ranging from five minutes to several hours, according to the WHO.
How does MERS spread?
Concern about the virus is gripping many in South Korea, with schools shutting and the increased use of face masks and hand sanitizers.
The virus acts like a cold and attacks the respiratory system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. But symptoms, which include fever and a cough, are severe and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure.
MERS spreads from close contact with an ill person, such as living or caring for them.
5 things to know about MERS
About three to four out of every 10 people reported with MERS have died. But the people who died often had underlying medical conditions that made them more vulnerable.
The two patients who died in South Korea had COPD and heavy asthma.
MERS has been linked to camels and it's possible that some people became infected after coming into contact with camels, but it's not completely clear.
There are no vaccines and no cures.
To prevent MERS, the CDC recommends everyday hygiene practices like hand-washing, covering coughs and sneezes, and avoiding personal contact with sick people.
Sources: The New York Times, CNN
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 03:52 pm (UTC)the dept of health announced that people stop eating camel meat and ride camels as a prevention method and people are like oh NO whatever will i do without my camel milk latte every morning?
i'm so annoyed, when sars happened they only had 4 people infected thanks to this nice emergency manual noh moo hyun had set up and what does lee myung bak and park geun hye do the first thing they get into power? get rid of those manuals. now korea's the country with 3rd highest number of patients when it's not even near the primary source of infection. jesus fucking christ
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 03:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 03:57 pm (UTC)Oh that must make so many so scared, going to the hospital and they may get infected while there. Stay well Korea.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 04:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 05:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 05:16 pm (UTC)i hope this gets dealt with quickly and in the best way possible so more people don't have to suffer and so south koreans don't have to live in fear of getting this disease
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 05:46 pm (UTC)Hope everyone takes precautions and stays safe.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 05:57 pm (UTC)and yet despite this fatal fact, they still would not disclose the name of the hospital these people are staying in. what the fuck???? it's as if the people running the country don't have brains.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 07:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-04 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 07:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 06:40 pm (UTC)This is honestly so scary, I'm not sure how disease surveillance/containment goes over there but I hope this gets under control soon.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 07:07 pm (UTC)I hope they get this under control and are able to prevent anymore deaths.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 08:14 pm (UTC)Although my country has a Naegleria virus (brain eating amoeba that spreads through nasal tract, has 96% fatality rate) outbreak rn on top of the annual Dengue outbreaks so take heart Koreans, it could be worse!/sarcasm
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 10:04 pm (UTC)And also wtf at the 2 korean women in HK refusing quarantine and going out shopping in causeway bay, which is one of the most popular tourist destination in Hong Kong. Makes me so mad how they are dealing with this.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-03 10:41 pm (UTC)also the korean women were also falsely framed - they were contacted in english which they didn't speak, they had no prior knowledge about the mers outbreak, and when you're in a foreign country and bunch of people try to take you away, you'd panic too - hong kong newspapers made it sound like they were selfish people who'd rather go shopping than quarantine yourself away from people when in reality they had no clue why these people were telling them to come with them to be quarantined.
idk, these people fucked up but they didn't really have bad intentions - it's really the sk gov who's fucking up every turn of this event :(
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2015-06-04 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-04 12:40 am (UTC)also it spread a lot during hajj season (millions of people from all around the world visit mecca for pilgrimage)
they say 90% of camels are infected with this disease :(
no subject
Date: 2015-06-04 04:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-04 04:18 am (UTC)Also people need to STOP LEAVING QUARANTINE. So many articles are popping up of people going home, leaving to do other shit, it's infuriating. Coupled with the governments lack of action, this could get bad fast. They need to contain it.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-04 04:37 am (UTC)Basically the incubation period for MERS is around 5 days (as few as 4 and as long as 12). So if you've been exposed you should show symptoms within a week; if you don't, you're ok. It can't spread easily from being around coughing people unless they cough right in your face or if you share utensils, swap saliva, etc...basically really close contact, you can get it. Washing hands and avoiding sick people is a really easy way to stop the spread.
The only real danger is for children, elderly, and those with weak immune systems. If you are strong and healthy, the virus may burn out after 2 weeks in your body (or...you could die. 35-40% fatality rate!). this is all what I was told by one of my students, who is a doctor. *shrug* It looks like pneumonia at its worst stage, but it is more fatal than pneumonia because there is no medicine to stop it.
The main issue I find is that Koreans are hardcore neurotic about work, so even if the doctors tell them to STAY AT HOME if they're showing cold symptoms (MERS is cough AND fever, so people misdiagnose it as a simple chest cold and then they die.), Koreans refuse to skip work. The bosses don't care about MERS, they'll fucking fire you if you stay home for 4 days. so the virus spreads easily.....
I'm not too panicky because I remember SARS in Canada, but Korea simply has terrible emergency response systems. just awful. Anyway this was a random rant. Koreans are nervous about MERS but there's no outright panic...not yet. I kind of wish people panicked more, it would make it easier to contain the virus..
I plan to stay close to home over the next few weeks (thank god I started vacation today). I've got asthma so I'm very high risk....I definitely wouldn't survive!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-04 05:13 am (UTC)Been avoiding anyone coughing as well just in case. Can't be too safe...
I have two weeks of class left and then I go straight to the US, so I'm hoping I can avoid it until then.