Korean Doctor Discusses What It is Like to Contract the MERS Virus

GIKorea | June 12, 2015 | Korea-General Topics | No Comments

Here is an interesting read from a doctor who survived being infected with MERS by the 68 year old Korean man who initially brought the virus to South Korea after traveling in the Middle East:

Q. What were your symptoms?

A. In terms of my personal symptoms, there really isn’t much [to talk about]: a bit of muscle pain, indigestion, some coughing and a meager fever just high enough to fall after taking a few pills. The muscle pain wasn’t severe enough to take any painkillers. It hurt a little for about three to four days, but I got a lot better from the fifth. After a week, I started reading.

What was the most difficult pain to endure?

I don’t know whether my case can be comparable with that of other MERS patients. I was pretty healthy before the disease and also diagnosed pretty early, so it wasn’t as tough [as people assume]. I didn’t have trouble breathing. I’ve had the flu before, and if I were to grade the pain that ensued up to a 7, I’d say MERS was a 3 or a 4.

What was your daily schedule?

I had no sense of life during the first several days of treatment, but when I settled down later on I felt like my world was in tragedy. The television was one of my very few tools of connection with the outer world. I saw endless false rumors about MERS on the Internet, and being unable to speak up about the truth was what suffocated me the most. I was also worried about my own patients, and the false rumors that I treated them even after hearing the news I had MERS.

How are you feeling now?

I’m completely fine. I have a small cough, but I feel the same as I did before I had MERS.

As a doctor and former MERS patient, do you have anything to say about the current spread of the virus in Korea?

Fundamentally, I think doctors generally have to reflect upon their [lack of professionalism], because they were ignorant of MERS to begin with. In that sense, I think the outbreak may have been our [Korean doctors’] fault. [Joong Ang Ilbo]