One patient infected 82 of South Korea's MERS outbreak, study finds
Seoul - A single patient was responsible for infecting 82 people during South Korea's MERS epidemic in 2015, according to a study published in the The Lancet on Saturday.
The researchers reconstructed the diseases' progression using camera images and medical records provided by the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, identifying one of the hospital's patients as the source.
The 35-year-old man spread the corona virus to others in a crowded emergency room. There is no vaccine for MERS and the virus spreads from ill people to others through close contact.
In 2015, South Korea's MERS outbreak killed 36 people and made nearly 200 ill over a two-month period. Thousands of others were quarantined. The virus damaged economic growth in the country with the number of visiting tourists dropping more than 40 per cent.
First discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012, typical symptoms of the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) include fever, respiratory problems, pneumonia, diarrhoea and kidney failure.
The disease was brought to South Korea in May 2015 by a 68-year-old man who visited several countries in the Middle East.
- DPA
