A sign is installed at Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul on Sept. 9, 2018, asking visitors to contact staff if they are suspected to have been infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Health authorities said the previous day a 61-year-old man was confirmed to be infected with the lethal virus after returning from a business trip to Kuwait via Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. It marked the first case of the disease here since 2015. (Yonhap)
This persistent disease continues to afflict one Korean who is the last known MERS case in South Korea:
The patient once thought to be the last South Korean with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has been rediagnosed with the viral disease, officials said Monday.
The 35-year-old patient, who had tested negative for the MERS virus in two tests on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, has been infected again, the Health Ministry said.
Earlier in the day, the ministry said the patient had been admitted to Seoul National University Hospital with a high fever. Doctors and relatives who had come in contact with the patient, 61 individuals in total, were quarantined.
After the patient had tested negative, the government was to officially declare the end of the MERS outbreak on Oct. 29, 28 days after the test results became available.
No additional cases or fatalities from MERS had been reported since July until Monday. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but this year a total of 36 people died of MERS in South Korea which had a mortality rate of 19.4%.
Here is some good news for the people in Korea:
Anchor: The Ministry of Health and Welfare says no new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome were reported for the sixth straight day on Saturday, marking the longest period of time to date in which no new cases were confirmed.
Our Mina Cha has more.Report: The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Saturday that no new cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) have been reported for the sixth straight day, leaving the number of total confirmed MERS patients from the current outbreak unchanged at 186.
The Ministry’s central MERS-response headquarters said this marks the longest period of time to date in which no new cases were confirmed since the outbreak in South Korea that began in May.
Three more patients have fully recovered and were released from hospital, while one more patient has died from the deadly virus.
Five-hundred-13 suspected patients remain under quarantine at home or hospital, 53 fewer than Friday.
If the MERS outbreak continues to subside at this pace with no additional patients, those under quarantine are also all expected to be released by around July 25. [KBS World Radio]
You can read more at the link.
https://twitter.com/SouthKoreaDaily/status/618156399789346816
For those going out to clubs in Itaewon over the long 4th of July weekend, here is one club you will not get into:
An upscale nightclub in Itaewon, Seoul, has stopped accepting foreign customers over the past two weeks in fears of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), a virus that has taken lives of 33 people in South Korea, the owner of the club said Wednesday.
Kim Jong-hyun, owner of Lounge & Club Move contacted The Korea Observer and requested that we remove an article that we published a day earlier as he believes it implies the club has a racist policy in place.
“We absolutely don’t accept foreigners because of MERS,” said Kim. “Above all, Korean people don’t want them. This is Korea, isn’t it?” [Korea Observer]
Here is what he had to say about US military servicemembers:
“Most of the time when a customer loses a cellphone, the CCTV reveals that the thieves are Middle Eastern people or foreigners.”
Kim agreed with his manager Lee’s statement that the club has been hesitant to have foreign customers because it is hard to make them liable when they cause property damages, sexually harass customers or start a brawl.
He also stressed that foreign customers frequently start a fight with U.S. servicemen.
“U.S. servicemen don’t behave badly. The problem is other foreign customers who constantly provoke them into a fight,” Kim said.
“It is better not to have them because we lose too much for trying to make a small amount of money from them.”
You can read the rest at the link, but US servicemembers have been accused for so long for being the ones to start fights in Korea that I don’t know how to react.
Here is some good news that these USFK family members tested negative for MERS and have been released from quarantine:
Two U.S. military families in Seoul were released from quarantine Wednesday after testing negative for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a virus that has killed 27 South Koreans over the past month.
U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan described the quarantine as a precautionary measure in a Facebook post Tuesday. The families, who had been under medical supervision since last week in line with South Korean government guidelines, were described as asymptomatic and not contagious.
Each family had a member who was treated at an off-post hospital affected by the MERS outbreak. The families were quarantined from the time of potential exposure.
No other U.S. Forces Korea families or individuals are under quarantine for the virus, the Facebook post said. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
What is likely going on here is that North Korea is using the MERS crisis in South Korea for maximum domestic propaganda purposes. The Kim regime is able to claim that their government has been able to develop a cure for MERS unlike the South Koreans who a dieing from the virus. I would not be surprised if the domestic propaganda had a racist element to it criticizing the South Koreans for contracting these diseases by mixing with dirty foreigners in the first place. For those that are not familiar with North Korea’s race based nationalism I highly recommend reading B.R. Myers great book, “The Cleanest Race“:
North Korea said Friday it has developed an injection that is highly effective in preventing and curing the MERS virus and other contagious diseases.
But doubts have arisen over the credibility of its claim given its poor health care system.
North Korea’s Pugang Pharmaceutic Co. has developed “Kumdang-2,” made of extracts from ginseng with the injection of rare earth elements, according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“As a strong immune-activator, the injection has been recognized to prevent different malignant epidemics,” the KCNA said, citing remarks by Jon Sung-hun, a doctor and director of the pharmaceutical company.
The report came as South Korea has confirmed the 24th death from and 166 infections of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome since the first case was reported in May.
The reclusive North’s claim couldn’t be verified independently by the outside world. Observers here said chances are slim that the North has developed such an injection, given that many North Koreans are suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases amid a lack of vaccination and the poor health care system. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link.
A soldier is checked for a fever at the Army’s Special Warfare Command in Seoul on June 16, 2015, before he participates in a field training exercise, as a precaution against the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). As of that day, South Korea had confirmed four additional cases of the viral respiratory illness with three more deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 154 with 19 deaths. (Yonhap)
It is probably smart that the nationalities of these expats are not being released because I can just see some people trying to blame a certain nationality for the MERS spread:
Dozens of foreigners have been put in quarantine for Middle East respiratory syndrome, but health authorities have yet to identify all of their nationalities, sources said Tuesday.
The Health and Welfare Ministry said that about 20 to 30 foreigners in Korea were ordered to be under home monitoring as they were suspected to have been exposed to MERS-confirmed patients.
As of Tuesday, more than 5,000 individuals in the country are being monitored at home for possible infection.
The exact number and nationality of those concerned has not been fully confirmed because the information of their home countries was not collected in the initial stages of the screening, according to the ministry.
“Once the MERS response team sends the list of those that they assume could be foreigners, we first identify based on names whether they are Korean nationals or not, and then proceed with the personal identification. So far, it may be uncertain, but there are believed to be around 20 to 30 expats under quarantine monitoring,” a Health Ministry official who is in charge of foreign affairs told The Korea Herald.
“The nationality identification is underway, but even if everything is confirmed, their nationalities will be kept confidential because of diplomatic issues,” she said, adding that some countries ask that the information not be released. [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link.
It will probably take just one kid to get infected by MERS to cause all these schools to get shutdown again:
President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday visited a primary school in southern Seoul, which has reopened following the weeklong shutdown over the deadly MERS virus.
The visit is the latest in a series of public activities designed to allay public fears about the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome that has killed 19 South Koreans.
The school had been closed for seven days last week as a precautionary measure against the virus. The school is located near Samsung Medical Center, which has been a major source of infections.
“I will do my best to ensure that (the virus) is brought to an end,” Park said in a meeting with students during a separate visit to a middle school in western Seoul. The middle school was closed for two days last week.
The visit came as South Korea reported four new cases of the viral respiratory illness that put the total number of people diagnosed with the disease at 154 — about half of them infected in Samsung Medical Center. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link.
