HEALTH-MERS/SOUTH KOREA-REAX Seoul residents worried after two deaths from MERS

Record ID: 149954

  • Title: HEALTH-MERS/SOUTH KOREA-REAX Seoul residents worried after two deaths from MERS
  • Date: 2nd June 2015
  • Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA (JUNE 2, 2015) (REUTERS) BUSES AND CARS DRIVING PAST ELECTRONIC BOARD SHOWING NEWS HEADLINE READING (Korean): "FIRST TWO DEATHS FROM AN OUTBREAK OF MIDDLE EAST RESPIRATORY SYNDROME (MERS) / 25 PATIENTS INCLUDING TERTIARY INFECTED PERSONS" PEOPLE WALKING ON STREET WOMAN WEARING MASK WALKING ON STREET VARIOUS OF ELDERLY WOMAN WEARING MASK ANOTHER WOMAN WEA
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACV34VUHBKRKRKMP17N207E35Q
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Some South Koreans were worried on Tuesday (June 2) after the country reported its first two deaths from an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that has infected 25 people in two weeks, as public alarm grew and officials scrambled to contain its spread.
    South Korea has isolated more than 700 people for possible MERS infection, which is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered the deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), but MERS has a much higher death rate than SARS and there is no cure or vaccine.
    The World Health Organisation (WHO) puts the total number of cases globally at 1,154, with at least 434 related deaths.
    A 58-year-old woman, who had contact with South Korea's first patient, died of acute respiratory failure on Monday (June 1), the Health Ministry said. A 71-year-old man who had been on respiratory support with a history of kidney ailments also died.
    South Korea's health ministry reported seven new cases on Tuesday, including the woman who died, bringing the total number of cases to 25. South Korea now has the third highest number of cases after Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
    Some people were seen wearing face masks in Seoul.
    Forty-one-year-old Lee Yu-jeong, a mother of three children, said she was worried.
    "I feel insecure that the authorities tend to cover up the seriousness of MERS in South Korea. I do not feel like going to the areas with my children where MERS mainly occurred," she said.
    "Tertiary transmissions that we were worried about actually occurred. So, I am very concerned about the further spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)." 87-year-old Shin Hyo-jae added.
    Others said they were not alarmed.
    "People could die from the flu and people are not concerned much about it. However, people are overreacting this time for MERS," said 23-year-old resident Kim Joon-woo.
    The death rate from MERS, first identified in humans in 2012, has been 38 percent, according to WHO figures, with older patients and those with existing respiratory and renal ailments at greater risk, according to a South Korean doctor.
    By comparison, the death rate from SARS was 9 to 12 percent, rising above 50 percent for patients over 65, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
    The WHO has so far not recommended travel or trade restrictions for South Korea.
    However, South Korean border control authorities have issued a ban on overseas travel for people isolated for possible infection, a health ministry official said.
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