South Korea confirmed three more cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Monday, bringing the total number of people infected with the disease to 18.
The latest infected people had been in the same hospital where the country’s first MERS case was reported. Two of them were patients in the hospital, while the other person is a son of another patient who had visited the hospital to care for his parent, the Health Ministry said.
They had not been monitored by the authorities as they had shown no symptoms of the disease when they were dismissed from the hospital, according to the ministry.
The total number of MERS infections reached 18 in 12 days since the first outbreak on May 20.
Still, the ministry said the country has yet to report any tertiary infections, meaning all 17 people diagnosed since the first case became infected after coming in close contact with the first patient.
A confirmed tertiary infection will make any of the 18 people who have been diagnosed a carrier.
So far, the country is isolating only the people who have come in close contact with the first patient, who reportedly caught the disease while traveling to the Middle East in mid-April.
Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo said the government is mobilizing all-out efforts to prevent further infection.
“This week will become a critical crossroads over whether MERS will continue to spread or subside,” Moon said in a policy coordination meeting with the ruling Saenuri Party officials in Seoul. “I am very sorry for worrying citizens and causing them anxiety.”
MERS is a viral respiratory illness that is fairly new to humans. There had been only 1,142 reported cases in 23 countries since the first case was confirmed in Saudi Arabia in 2012 with all cases linked to countries in and near the Middle East so far.
There currently is no vaccine or treatment for the disease that has a very high fatality rate of over 40 percent. (Yonhap)
