MERS
(IN PHOTO)Passengers wearing masks to prevent contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) walk past a thermal imaging camera (unseen) at Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea, June 2, 2015. South Korea on Tuesday reported its first two deaths from an outbreak of MERS that has infected 25 people in two weeks, as public alarm grew and officials scrambled to contain the outbreak. REUTERS

South Korea confirms the first two deaths in the country from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS. The MERS virus has already been reported to have killed hundreds of people in the Middle East where the disease first emerged in 2012, but now, according to the World Health Organisation, or WHO, the MERS outbreak in South Korea, considered as the largest outside Saudi Arabia, is likely to spread.

The number of affected so far have reached 25 with five more new cases reported to date. The first case to be diagnosed with the disease was in May in a man who had travelled to Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. Moreover, most of the infected people have had connections to the first patient either in the form of the medical staff who treated him or the patients who were staying near him at the hospital before he was quarantined. So far, 680 people have been isolated by the South Korean officials to limit the further spread of the disease.

The MERS virus was discovered in 2012 and has mostly been centered in Saudi Arabia. It belongs to the family of coronaviruses, the same as that of common cold viruses and SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, that was first identified in 2003 and is spread through the droplet infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath, in addition to complications like pneumonia and kidney failure. WHO has lab-confirmed at least 1,154 cases of MERS worldwide since 2012, along with 431 related deaths, a mortality rate of 37 percent.

The South Korean health ministry official has said that although WHO is yet to issue trade or travel restrictions for South Korea, authorities have still put a ban on any overseas travel for people isolated for possible infection. Furthermore, more than 50 schools and kindergartens surrounding the hospital which reported the first case have been asked to cancel their classed until Friday.

There is a major public health concern and a growing sense of alarm among the people of South Korea with media openly criticising the failed efforts of the government in coping the situation in the initial stages. Just last week, China had reported its first case of MERS which happens to be the son of one of the patients of MERS and had travelled from Seoul to China, ignoring the doctor’s plea. He was then diagnosed and isolated there. In Hong Kong, 18 travellers have been put under quarantine just because they sat near him, but they are reportedly not showing any kind of symptoms for the disease.

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