South Korean hospitals suspend services as MERS outbreak spreads
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 24 June, 2015, 2:35pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 24 June, 2015, 2:35pm
Agence France-Presse in Seoul
Members of the Korea Health and Medical Workers' Union stage a rally to protest against the Samsung Medical Centre's lack of control in preventing the spread of MERS in front of the center in Seoul on Friday. Photo: AP
Two major hospitals in South Korea’s capital suspended services to patients yesterday in a bid to stop the spread of MERS after four new cases of the deadly virus were reported.
The new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome included two who were in the same hospital ward as other patients with the potentially deadly virus, Seoul’s health ministry said.
The others were a nurse at Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul -- one of the epicentres of the outbreak -- and a relative of a patient who was hospitalised for an unspecified disease in a hospital in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, in early June.
Out of 179 people confirmed to have caught MERS, five were infected through unknown transmission routes outside hospitals, which have until now been at the epicentre of the outbreak, the ministry said.
A total of 27 people have died in South Korea’s MERS outbreak -- the largest outside Saudi Arabia -- while about 3,100 people were being held under quarantine at state facilities or at home.
Samsung hospital, where nearly 90 patients, visitors and medical staff have contracted the virus, declared a 10-day suspension of most services on June 14 to stem the spread of the virus.
But as the number of new infections has continued to grow, authorities have decided to extend the partial shutdown “indefinitely”.
The outbreak at the hospital, which belongs to South Korea’s top conglomerate Samsung group, prompted heir apparent Jay. Y. Lee to publicly apologise for “causing great pain and concern” on Tuesday.
Another major Seoul hospital, Konkuk University Medical Centre, has also stopped admitting new patients and performing surgery after four cases were reported in recent days.
Almost all infections so far have taken place in hospitals and the World Health Organisation said it had found no evidence suggesting transmission of the virus outside hospital.
Sixteen patients were in critical condition as of yesterday, the ministry said, while 67 people have recovered and been released from hospital.
South Korea’s MERS outbreak began on May 20 when a 68-year-old man was diagnosed after returning from a trip to Saudi Arabia.
