President Park Geun-hye has invited foreign medical experts as part of her efforts to draw up a system to better cope with new types of contagious diseases, Cheong Wa Dae said Monday.
The move came as South Korea is trying to contain the outbreak of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus that has killed 27 people.
The five experts — two from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and three from the World Health Organization — plan to arrive in Seoul on Monday and Tuesday, the presidential office said in a statement.
The experts include Stephen Redd, the director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the CDC, and Sylvie Briand, director of the Pandemic and Epidemic Diseases Department of WHO.
Park plans to meet with the experts Wednesday on how to overhaul South Korea’s quarantine system against contagious diseases.
Park could also discuss with the experts the agenda for a global health summit to be held in South Korea in September.
The Global Health Security Agenda, launched last year, is designed to help create a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats. South Korea and the United States are among the 44 member states of the GHSA.
Earlier this month, U.S. President Barack Obama said during his telephone conversation with Park that he is ready to provide all necessary aid to South Korea to help its Asian ally contain the spread of the MERS virus.
Last week, Park also met with WHO chief Margaret Chan in Seoul and asked her to dispatch experts of the U.N. health agency to help overhaul South Korea’s quarantine system against new types of contagious diseases. (Yonhap)
