A major Seoul hospital has suspended services after being identified as the epicentre of the spread of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) that has killed 15 people since being diagnosed in South Korea on May 20.
The latest fatality was a 62-year-old man who died Sunday afternoon in the southern port city of Busan, the city council said.
He was infected in the Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul, a major hospital in the capital that announced on Sunday the suspension of all non-emergency services.
South Korea’s health ministry reported seven new cases on Sunday, taking the total number of cases to 145.
The 15 people who have died from the disease were all elderly people, or people with existing ailments.
Authorities have sealed off at least two other hospitals with patients and medical workers inside, as the number of people who have come into contact with patients and were put under quarantine either at state facilities or at home rose Sunday by more than 800 to 4,856.
MERS facts
- Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus is known as MERS and MERS-CoV
- All recorded cases can be traced back to the Middle East
- Dromedary camels are thought to be the source of infection
- The virus can be spread person-to-person
- Symptoms include fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties
- Severe cases can have a rapid onset of respiratory illness, like pneumonia
- There is no vaccine to prevent the virus
Source: health.gov.au
The Samsung Medical Centre said it would take no new patients to focus on stopping MERS, after more than 70 cases were traced back to it.
Its tally has surpassed the number at a hospital in Pyeongtaek, where the first patient stayed.
Among the cases was an emergency ward orderly who worked for days after developing symptoms, coming into contact with more than 200 people, the hospital said.
“We apologise for causing great concern as Samsung Medical Centre became the centre of the spread of MERS,” hospital president Song Jae-hoon told a news conference.
“This is entirely our responsibility and failing as we did not properly manage emergency room staff.”
The orderly is believed to have picked up the virus from an infected person who waited three days in different parts of the emergency ward, with nearly 900 staff, patients and visitors coming and going.
No visitors will be allowed, Mr Song said, adding he would decide on June 24 whether or not to continue the partial suspension.
“We offer our deep apology and express regret to all of our patients who were infected here and those placed under quarantine,” he said.
As the outbreak continued to expand, a South Korean man thought to have contracted MERS was hospitalised in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Saturday.
The man reportedly arrived in Slovakia on June 3 and works for a subcontractor of Seoul carmaker Kia, which runs a plant in the central European country.
“He said he had not visited any hospital before leaving for Slovakia,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding the man had contacted the embassy in Slovakia as he was developing symptoms such as fever.
WHO calls emergency meeting
The World Health Organisation has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday on South Korea’s “large and complex” outbreak of MERS — the largest outside Saudi Arabia, where it was first identified in humans in 2012.
The WHO said on Saturday that South Korea should anticipate more cases and recommended stepped-up disease control and prevention measures.
But the organisation said it saw no sign the disease was spreading in the community, and there was also no indication the virus in South Korea was mutating into one more easily passed between people.
MERS was diagnosed in South Korea on May 20 in a businessman who had returned from a trip to the Middle East and has spread through its hospitals.
It has stirred fears of a repeat of a 2002-2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which began in China and killed about 800 people globally.
MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused SARS. There is no cure or vaccine.
Reuters/AFP