It is almost certain that we will have to live with the fear of the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak for longer than we ― or to be more exact, the government ― expected.
It has been one month since a man who had traveled to the Middle East was diagnosed as the first patient, but we still see the numbers ― of deaths, patients and those in isolation ― rising day by day.
The prime responsibility lies with health care authorities who failed to isolate the first patient and release pertinent information to the public and hospitals. Hospitals also deserve criticism for overlooking the danger of the deadly, contagious disease, thus becoming hotbeds for MERS infections.
What unsettles us is that we still don’t know when we will be able to put behind us the viral disease that has already claimed 23 lives and put nearly 7,000 people in isolation. We should of course guard against any overreaction, but some recent developments do really worry us.
The most troubling thing is that what officials ― and some experts ― have been saying about the disease has turned out not to be the case.
For instance, officials had said MERS had a high fatality rate of about 40 percent, but was not so infectious. They said people who did not come into close contact with patients or virus carriers ― say within two meters ― did not have to worry about being afflicted with the disease.
It comes as a little relief that the fatality rate in Korea remains at about 14 percent, but this hardly assures us, especially considering the way the virus has spread. People who were not in close contact with patients and virus carriers fell victim to the disease, which obviously defies the officials’ “two-meter rule.”
There have already been four cases of quaternary infection, which raises the fear of airborne infection and communal contagion, the worst possible situation, and one that must be avoided by any means.
Officials said MERS does not easily afflict young, healthy people if they do not have chronic illnesses like pneumonia. But this too turned out to be a mere hope: Patients include those in their 30s and 40s, and more troublingly, at least two out of the 23 people who died of MERS did not have any other ailment.
One more notable negative development is that the government’s assertion that the incubation period of MERS is a maximum of 14 days seems not to have held true. There are cases in which people were diagnosed as MERS patients 18 to 19 days after they were exposed to the coronavirus that causes the disease.
This calls on authorities to alter the 14-day guideline in monitoring suspected patients and potential virus carriers. This is important because what’s most urgent is to prevent a new wave of transmission and outside-hospital infections.
President Park Geun-hye, visiting a school recently, said that MERS was nothing but a “Middle East-type flu.” As the chief executive, she may well seek to assure the people, but given the situation, she seems complacent. Many Koreans agree that what started as a health care crisis could wreak havoc on society and the economy.
Health authorities ― from the government to hospitals ― must pull together their resources to treat patients and monitor suspected patients in order to end the epidemic as soon as possible.
