It may be too early to say so, but the latest developments should convince the nation that it will be able to contain the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak that has been raging for three weeks.
The disease, which has led to seven deaths, the quarantine of about 3,000 people and the virtual shutdown of about 30 hospitals, indeed raises questions about the nation’s competence in dealing with infectious diseases.
The government’s botched initial response and the apparent complacency ― on part of the president on down to frontline health care officials and medical doctors ― are primarily to blame for the quick spread of the deadly disease.
President Park Geun-hye did not address the issue herself until 14 days after the first MERS patient was reported. Not before newspaper editorials decried her negligence did she visit a hospital treating MERS patients.
Officials at the Health Ministry and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention did not make public the names of the hospitals affected by the viral disease until 18 days after the first patient was diagnosed. It would have been strange if rumors feeding fear and unrest had not flourished, especially on the Internet and social networks.
The case of the Samsung Medical Center, one of the nation’s top hospitals, shows how poorly prepared our medical system is against infectious diseases. Nearly 900 people came into contact with MERS patients at the hospital, which used to boast of its world-class, top-level medical facilities and personnel.
Adding to the public furor was the interference by politicians. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, a potential opposition presidential candidate, held a late-evening news conference in which he overstated the danger from a medical doctor who had been suspected of contracting the disease while working at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul.
It is never wrong for the mayor to alert his constituents to a growing menace to public health, but it turned out that he overstated the danger. The doctor rebutted the mayor’s statement, which said that he came into contact with more than 1,500 people.
Under mounting public criticism, Park and the heads of three other local governments later held a joint news conference with Health Minister Moon Hyung-pyo and pledged cooperation and collaboration to fight the disease. They also did well to allow local authorities to conduct the tests to diagnose MERS patients.
Besides officials and politicians, there are some ordinary citizens who cannot avoid blame for being part of the failed system. The first patient initially did not tell doctors and officials that he had traveled to the Middle East, and there were people who concealed their symptoms to avoid quarantine, with some potential patients even traveling for leisure.
All these combined to make Korea the No. 2 country in the world ― after only Saudi Arabia ― in terms of MERS patients. It’s a shame, as the country successfully contained the severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003 and the swine flu pandemic in 2009.
The strength of a nation is put to the test through a crisis like the MERS outbreak. All concerned in the MERS fight ― governments, both at the central and local levels, medical institutions and the political community ― should exert concerted efforts to stop the disease. Individual citizens also have their duties ― following the rules on reporting suspected symptoms, abiding by quarantine guidelines and enhancing personal hygiene.
What everyone should keep in mind is that neither panic nor complacency should accompany these efforts.
