Tourists fear MERS outbreak in South Korea

SEOUL - Tourists in South Korea were worried on Thursday amid a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, which has killed at least three people and infected dozens in two weeks.

In Myeong-dong, a tourist attraction in capital city Seoul, tourists wore mask while walking around the streets.

One of the tourists said she feels insecure about the situation.

"When I arrived at the Incheon International Airport, I saw people wearing mask so I think there must be some disease around here. So, I feel a bit unsecured, so I buy the mask and wear here," said 56-year-old Malaysian tourist Zakiah Hussin.

According to South Korea Tourism Organization, about 2,500 people on Monday (June 1) and about 4,500 people on Tuesday (June 2) canceled trips to the country, mostly by tourists from China and other Asian regions.

"I thought about cancel this trip before because of the MERS. News in China (you know) very scareful. But this graduation trip is meaningful as we scheduled it long times ago. So We still decided to be here anyhow," said 22-year-old Lorraine Long from China.

"It is not going to be convenient for foreigners to come here with the fact that MERS is around," 21-year-old Brazilian tourist Tais Correa added fear about trip in South Korea.

Earlier in the day, South Korea's Health Ministry confirmed five additional cases of MERS, raising the total to 35, including two more health care workers who treated infected patients.

There have been three deaths directly confirmed as a result from MERS, sharply raising public fear and confusion as authorities tried to contain the spread of the disease by tracking down people who may have had contact with patients.

All the cases have been traced to a 68-year-old man who had visited Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the countries with the most MERS cases.

Whilst there has been no sustained human-to-human transmission, the worst-case scenario would be for the virus to change and spread rapidly, as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) did in 2002-2003, killing about 800 people around the world.

MERS was first identified in humans in 2012 and is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered SARS. But MERS has a much higher death rate at 38 percent, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures.

The new cases would bring the total number globally to 1,179, based on World Health Organisation (WHO) data, with at least 442 related deaths.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

South Korea reports 5 more cases of MERS illness

SEOUL - South Korea confirmed five more cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, the health ministry said early on Wednesday, bringing to 30 the total number of cases in the country of the often-deadly illness.

On Tuesday, South Korea reported its first two deaths from MERS since the first confirmed case two weeks ago, fuelling growing worry about the spread of the illness in the country, which has reported the most cases of MERS outside the Middle East.

South Korea has isolated about 750 people for possible MERS infection, which is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that triggered the deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). MERS has a much higher death rate than SARS and there is no cure or vaccine.

Of the five new cases, four had been in the same hospital as the first patient, a 68-year-old man who had recently travelled to four countries in the Middle East. The other, a 60-year-old man, caught it from another person infected in the outbreak.

The new cases would bring the total number globally to 1,166, based on earlier World Health Organization (WHO) data, with at least 436 related deaths.

The WHO has not recommended trade or travel restrictions for South Korea, although South Korean border control authorities have put a ban on overseas travel for people isolated for possible infection, a health ministry official said.

Government health officials have been criticized for being slow to respond to the outbreak.

The death rate from MERS, first identified in humans in 2012, has been 38 percent, according to WHO figures, with older patients and those with existing respiratory and renal ailments at greater risk, according to a South Korean doctor. However, experts said that figure may overstate the fatality rate as patients with little or no symptoms might go undetected.

By comparison, the death rate from SARS was 9 to 12 percent, rising above 50 percent for patients over 65, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Saudi urged to do more vs MERS coronavirus

RIYADH - An international health mission said Monday more measures are needed to combat the spread of MERS in Saudi Arabia, the country worst hit by the coronavirus.

The team of experts said it identified with health authorities in the kingdom the need for "understanding the animal/human interface" including the "modes of infection and transmission."

It also urged "improving disease prevention, especially in health facilities that continue to experience avoidable infections," in a statement issued by the World Health Organisation following the conclusion of the mission to Saudi Arabia.

The mission headed to the desert kingdom after a surge of cases in the past weeks, including 50 reported this month alone as well as infections acquired in health facilities.

A total of 899 people have been infected in the kingdom, of whom 382 have died, since the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was identified globally in 2012.

The health ministry recorded five deaths on Thursday alone, bringing to 16 the number since February 11.

"When health workers are infected at work, this puts other health-care workers at risk, but also can be a risk to all other patients who seek care for other health conditions," said the statement.

It said that educating professionals and the public about the virus are "urgently needed," highlighting "significant gaps in community engagement to fully understand routes of infection and the preventive steps that should be taken."

More than 20 countries have been affected by MERS but most cases have been linked to the Middle East.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

No risk of pandemic yet from MERS virus: scientists

PARIS - The new MERS coronavirus that has claimed dozens of lives in the Middle East does not yet have the ability to trigger a pandemic, but vigilance is needed in case it mutates, French scientists said on Friday.

"Our analysis suggests that MERS-CoV does not yet have pandemic potential," they reported online in The Lancet.

But they urged health watchdogs to keep up their guard and pursue the search for the virus' bolthole in nature.

"We recommend enhanced surveillance, active contact tracing and vigorous searches for the MERS-CoV animal hosts and transmission routes to human beings," said the Pasteur Institute team which conducted the research.

A respiratory virus that can cause fever and pneumonia, MERS is a cousin of the deadly SARS virus which erupted in southern China in 2003 and snowballed into a global health scare.

Since Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) first came to light in 2012, there have been 43 recorded deaths, 36 of them in Saudi Arabia.

The death rate is high -- at roughly one in every two patients -- although doctors say there may be other case that are not diagnosed as MERS or do not cause grave illness.

The trio of French epidemiologists looked at 55 MERS cases for evidence of "clusters" in which the virus had been passed on from one person to another rather than stopping with the patient who had fallen ill.

The point was to calculate the "basic reproduction number" -- known in an equation as R -- that is essentially a benchmark of contagiousness. When R is above 1, a virus or bacteria has epidemic potential.

But the worst-case scenario for MERS was an R of 0.69 and the most optimistic scenario was 0.60, the team found.

By comparison, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had an R of 0.8 at the pre-pandemic phase. The disease, which leapt from animals to animals, eventually killed 800 people.

Like SARS, MERS appears to cause a lung infection, with patients suffering from fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. But it differs in that it also causes rapid kidney failure, other research has found.

Study leader Arnaud Fontanet said that despite the encouraging news about contagiousness, health monitors must keep their eyes peeled.

"The R can change swiftly if the virus mutates or if there are exceptional events such as mass gatherings, like the pilgrimage to Mecca," he told AFP.

The 2012 Hajj drew 3.1 million people, and virologists note that this year's event likewise occurs in October, as the northern hemisphere slides into the season for coughs and sneezes.

World Health Organisation (WHO) head Margaret Chan sounded the alarm to ministers at the UN agency's annual congress in May, urging them to provide sound, factual advice for pilgrims.

"One of the main lessons from SARS is that if it had been confined at an early stage, this would have prevented it spreading globally," said Fontanet.

Figuring out the animal reservoir for MERS and how the virus is transmitted to humans is a priority, he said.

"We have a window of opportunity, and it's now that we have to act, before it adapts to humans."

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on June 26 that 77 laboratory-confirmed cases had surfaced worldwide with 40 deaths.

Saudi Arabia announced two further deaths on Wednesday and on Thursday Britain said a 49-year-old Qatari man who had been airlifted to London for treatment last September had died last week.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com