South Korea red alert on Mers virus as death toll rises

Authorities in South Korea have declared “war” on what they say is the worst outbreak of a deadly respiratory Mers virus outside the Middle East.

The country said it was stepping up its response on Friday after fourth victim died and the number of people infected with the disease rose to 41.

More than 1,600 people have been placed now under quarantine, media reports said, while the outbreak of the disease, for which there is no vaccine, has led to the temporary closure of more than 1,000 schools and colleges.

Thousands of people have called a government hotline seeking advice.

It is the worst Mers outbreak outside Saudi Arabia, where the respiratory virus is thought to have originated three years ago.

In echoes of the severe acute respiratory syndrome [Sars] outbreak more than a decade ago, anxious residents were stocking up on surgical masks and airports were stepping up screening efforts after the outbreak in South Korea was traced to a 68-year-old man who had been traveling in the Middle East.

The fourth Mers patient to die was a 76-year-old man who had tested positive for the virus in late May. The victim, who was not named, had come into close contact with the first confirmed Mers patient, Yonhap news agency said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said South Korea could expect more cases, but cautioned against unnecessary panic.

Most of the cases are linked to a single hospital south of Seoul, and there is no evidence of “sustained transmission in the community,” the UN health body said.

Kang Cheol-in, an infectious diseases expert at Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul, said it was highly unlikely anyone would become infected just by visiting crowded areas, such as parks or schools, since Mers is not an airborne disease.

The closure of so many schools “really doesn’t make sense,” Kang said.

The public is skeptical of official reassurances, however, just over a year after 300 people, mainly schoolchildren, died in the Sewol ferry sinking, a disaster many blame on official incompetence.

The health ministry belatedly released the name of the hospital where the first person to be diagnosed with Mers was treated amid complaints about a lack of transparency.

Kang said the initial government response was inadequate, “but the people are also looking at things in an unreasonable manner”.

The mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon, criticised the government for not reporting the Mers diagnosis of a doctor at a large hospital in Seoul who is believed to have been at a public meeting attended by about 1,500 people while infectious.

Officials said they were contacting people who attended the 30 May meeting to ask them to undergo voluntary quarantine.

“From now on, Seoul city is embarking on a war against Mers. We will take swift and stern measures to protect the lives and safety of our citizens,” Park told reporters Friday.

The health minister, Moon Hyong-po, apologised for causing anxiety among the public, but accused Park of spreading “mistrust and misunderstanding”.

Mers has a mortality rate of 38 percent and was first observed in Saudi Arabia in 2012. It has infected 1,161 people in more than 20 countries, with most of the cases in Saudi Arabia. The global death toll stands at 436.

Symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath, with an average incubation period of five to six days. It can be contracted only through close contact with sufferers, but camels are also thought capable of spreading the virus. South Korea has quarantined 17 camels at the country’s zoos.