South Korea decided not to formally declare an end to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak Thursday despite almost no risk of more infections in the country, official sources said.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had originally planned to make the public announcement Thursday, 28 days after the last patient held in quarantine tested negative for MERS.
The person whose identity has been withheld for privacy reasons was discharged from the hospital on Oct. 1 after repeatedly showing no signs of the virus.
The same person, however, was readmitted to a quarantine ward of a state-run hospital on Oct. 10 after coming down with a fever, with doctors confirming the existence of the MERS virus in his system two days later.
After the very first case was confirmed on May 20, 186 people contracted the potentially deadly virus, with 37 deaths taking place in the country. Most people who died were elderly and had underlying medical conditions like a weak respiratory system, heart and lung diseases, and cancer.
The patient still undergoing examination is the 80th person to have been diagnosed with MERS. The 35-year-old suffers from malignant lymphoma, a form of blood cancer.
“It is hard to determine if patient No. 80 actually has MERS at present because all test results are on the borderline,” a KCDC official said. He pointed out that doctors believe the anti-cancer medication he is taking has weakened his immune system and is allowing the virus to linger longer in the body than was the case with others.
The source added that there is nearly no chance of the patient infecting others, with even the World Health Organization saying the chance of transmission is extremely low.
Another health official said that while the government can wait 28 days after patient No. 80 again tests negative for MERS to declare an end to the outbreak, it may just skip the entire process.
“Everything has returned to normal and with no risk of further outbreaks, making a formal declaration seems pointless,” he said.
The government, meanwhile, declared on July 28 that the MERS outbreak has effectively been overcome and that people should not be overly concerned about the disease. (Yonhap)
