MERS Virus’s Path: One Man, Many South Korean Hospitals

I hope readers don't assume that South Korea has a developing-nation medical system. Twice my husband has taught a semester at Yonsei University, where we lived eight months total. Our apartment was a block from Yonsei Hospital, where we received medical care through the international clinic and ate some of our meals in the immense food court (and watched helicopters land on the roof). I would much prefer needing medical care there than here in the U.S. Koreans have a national health plan; our insurance paid low fees compared to U.S. medical services. Physicians and staff were highly trained and efficient.

Yes, the country is experiencing an outbreak of MERS, but if any country can handle it, South Korea can.

We are staying away from hospitals (at least I am, and I've told others not to go). The hospitals are where 95 persons, except for MERS patient no. 1, got infected. Some people are wearing masks (maybe 20%). The restaurants and pubs are mostly empty. The students are on vacation. Our lives have been impacted by MERS. I hate wearing the mask--I can't breathe. I'm being cautious in Korea.

I am a seoulite, and it is becoming more serious than I thought at the beginning of the outbreak.
As written in the article, more than two thousands schools (including kindergartens) have shut down. However, there is no way to fully control this virus since all the infected are assumed to be around 3000..
I believed that the government was "doing their best" but it turned out that even the recommended to be quarnatined patients were not perfectly controlled and infected others.
Today, Korean doctors' union announced to collect all the patients diagnosed with pneumonia. Many experts say that the symptoms of two dieases are similar so there might be clue to find more suspected MERS patients.

Interesting that the outbreak of another deadly disease has not garnered more comments from American readers, which seems to indicate that few people noticed or read this article. Usually when I open my electronic NYT, most comment sections are closed because their numbers are in the high hundreds. I suspect that the difficulty in controlling Ebola was because of the lack of worldwide interest until it appeared that the the virus had jumped borders.

We only seem to respond to world situations when they threaten us on our home turf., and we, as a population, should really be more aware (and care) of what goes on globally because we no longer live in our little towns, isolated for our whole lives.

The displacement of refugees (from war, oppression, poverty) is going to affect us all. What GWB did to Iraq is beginning to affect us all. And as we punish our planet more and more, health issues, water issues, food issues and safety issues will affect us all.

We have to keep attuned to what is happening all around the world, and hopefully elect leaders who are grounded, rational, educated, worldly, diplomatic and smart! We cannot solve all the problems, but knowledge is power.

I thought this was generally a good article but take issue with pointing out that there is no cure for mers. Viruses are generally not "curable" baring expensive and relatively unreliable compounds like interferon. Saying mers lacks a cure is like pointing the same thing out about the flu or the common cold or chicken pox. We still depend on our immune systems to remove infectious viruses with stabilization with support therapies.

Sue GH and her government for damages. She should never have been selected p of Korea.

Open Your Eyes

“There are none so blind as those who will not see.” -John Heywood (1546)

Anthrax? Ebola? SARS? Now, a new outbreak of MERS?

Another government hiding the truth for economic and political reasons? A world averse to seeing the looming danger of over-population? A world averse to admitting the obvious about who spreads what diseases and how? A world refusing to accept the potentially catastrophic consequences of its suicidal behavior?

“It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It is that they can’t see the problem.” -G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

When will humanity open its eyes to the risks it is unleashing upon itself? When recognition of the fundamental problem is too late?

We humans are angering Mother Nature, and She is likely to punish us severely for our misbehavior, ideologies notwithstanding.

See “The Exterminators” at ... http://nationonfire.com/category/uncategorized/ .

I've been living in Seoul for over a decade now. Just earlier this week, I made a comment on another NY Times article praising South Korea's efficient wireless network that allows its users to have unlimited access to any information regardless where they are located in the country. This week, in less than an hour of the initial media reporting of the first case of MERS infection, I've been bombarded endlessly on my mobile network with false and malicious rumors about how the virus actually spreads. The mobile message also included a hospital (which they said treated one of the infected patients) that was a couple of blocks from my house. I soon witnessed an exodus of people on a biblical scale from my neighborhood. Of course it was not even the same hospital that the government would release later in the week. I now learned that having an efficient and reliable wifi network is not necessarily a good thing...

Notice that South Korea quarantined for MERS with zero media outrage but a quarantine of any sort for Ebola and Western Africa was considered completely wrong and outrageous to even consider.

All Flights from S Korea have naturally been halted

This demonstrates once again, as if the well - publicized tragic death of Mr. Duncan in Texas were not enough, that anyone who is paid to run an emergency room must understand that part of the job description is to be aware of international public health issues, something easily done today through a free subscription to pro med digest
http://www.promedmail.org

As a physician and epidemiologist, I know that it is common terminology to say that a patient "infected" others, as was written in this article. But patients don't infect others, pathogens do. It was not the fault, or a deliberate act, of the first patient that so many others were infected with MERS, as is implied when it is written that the patient "infected" others. Rather, the spread of MERS in Korea was a combination of viruses doing what they do to survive and a healthcare system that was not prepared to control the spread of an infectious disease. Writing that the patient infected others is like blaming the victim.

I realize that it is wordier, but please in the future, use phrases such as "35 additional people were infected by the MERS virus that came from the index patient" (or some other more elegant phrases that journalists and editors come up with daily).