New MERS Cases in South Korea as Outbreak Far from Over
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - South Korea has reported seven new cases of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome or MERS, bringing the total number of infections to 145.
The deadly virus has killed 14 people so far, as World Health Organization team, which is now in the country to assess the situation, said the outbreak was "large and complex".
The group warned the government to remain vigilant because it expects the number of cases to rise further.
The experts say although the MERS virus is not spreading outside of hospitals, the outbreak is not yet over.
Two hospitals which treated MERS patients have been closed as a precaution while thousands of schools remain shut, Al Jazeera reported.
All of the cases are believed to be linked to hospital settings and traced to a businessman who had returned from a trip to the Middle East. All the deaths involve elderly patients or people who had been suffering serious ailments.
Meanwhile, a hospital in Slovakia is testing a 38-year-old South Korean man for possible MERS, a spokeswoman for Bratislava hospital said on Saturday.
The hospital has sent tests to a laboratory in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, and expects results on Sunday, spokeswoman Petra Stano Matasovska said. She said the patient was in stable condition.
Slovakia media reported the man was transported from the city of Zilina, 200km north of the Slovak capital. The area is home to a Kia Motors factory and media said the man worked for a subcontractor of the South Korean carmaker and that he was staying in a hotel in Zilina.
The outbreak in South Korea is the largest outside Saudi Arabia, where the disease was first identified in humans in 2012, and has stirred fears in Asia of a repeat of a 2002-2003 scare when Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) killed about 800 people worldwide.
MERS is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as the one that caused SARS. It is more deadly than SARS but does not spread as easily.
