In the first half of the year 2015, South Korea ached all over with the outbreak of MERS, a respiratory syndrome from Middle East. Though it is has come to an end, the syndrome had an enormous impact throughout the nation. In addition, the affair posed a serious problem to the people; how to handle such cases when it strikes again.......................................Ed.
It is not an exaggeration to say that MERS is to date one of the hottest issues this year. For a time, the world was fixated on the MERS circumstances in South Korea. Indeed, what was the reason for this, and what were the circumstances surrounding it?
MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) is a virus believed to be carried by a camel that first infected a person in the Middle East. The source of the infection and its infection route have not been determined. The first MERS patient in South Korea was a sexagenarian returning from the Middle East. He received treatment in four hospitals after his homecoming, and spread the virus. It was also a big issue that secondary infection occurred within the country.
When SARS first broke out, South Korea was recognized as an excellent country for having prevented the spread of the virus. But now, South Korea ranks second in the world in terms of the number of MERS-infected persons and the MERS mortality rate. Why did this happen?
First, the country’s health authorities did not act quickly. They took belated measures to stop the spread of the virus. They failed in their initial response to the situation, when the first MERS-infected patient had already spread the virus. Also, there was a case where a suspected patient of MERS visited a MERS-treatment-designated hospital but the hospital turned him away because the hospital did not know that it was designated to treat MERS. The country’s health authorities did not give the right information to hospitals, and it made the situation worse.
Second, the country’s heath authorities did not release early on the list of hospitals with MERS patients. You can get infected with MERS if there is a MERS patient within 2 meters of you, and as there are many people in big general hospitals and emergency rooms, it is easy to get infected with MERS. Since the government failed to release the list of these responsible hospitals early on, people started to guess these hospitals, and all sorts of rumors flew around.
Third, the South Korean hospital culture is worsening the MERS situation. There are too many family members and visitors in the hospitals. Also, there are too many people with all kinds of diseases gathered in the emergency room and too many care rooms occupied by several people all together, which makes infection management difficult.
Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced the following tips for MERS prevention:
(1)If you have a high fever (38 degrees or higher), cough, and labored respiration, you should get treatment from a medical institution.
(2)Avoid close contact with MERS patients.
(3)When coughing, cover your mouth with tissue paper. If you do not have tissue paper, use your sleeve to cover your mouth.
(4)When in the Middle East, avoid close contact with camels.
(5)Wash your hands with water and soap frequently.
(6)Avoid eating unsterilized camel milk and raw camel meat.
At the height of the spread of MERS, many people wore masks in public transit modes like the subway. Not only masks but also hand sanitizers were furnished
in public places, and anyone could use these for free. At that time, if a person coughed, all the people looked at him and gave him a sign of warning. All the people were susceptible to infection. Now the fear of MERS seems to have subsided, though. The number of people who are wearing masks is decreasing, and those who are seen wearing masks are even scolded for worrying too much about MERS. As all sorts of new diseases are appearing these days, people have to protect themselves with care.
