(Reuters) — South Korea’s Health Ministry on Sunday (July 5) reported an additional case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), bringing the total number of cases to 186.
“As of now, the total number of patients undergoing treatment is 37, 116 patients have been discharged from hospital and 33 people have died. And the total number of confirmed MERS cases is 186. Compared to yesterday, the total number of patients undergoing treatment has declined by four, and five patients left hospital. There are no additional deaths but one additional MERS case has been confirmed,” said Jeong Eun-kyeong, South Korean Director of Disease Prevention Center at Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, at a daily news briefing.
Among 37 MERS patients who were undergoing treatment, 25 were in stable condition and the other 12 were in an unstable condition, the Health Ministry added.
No deaths have been reported over the last five days.
The Health Ministry said that the new case involved a cancer patient who is the wife of another MERS patient.
“The 186th confirmed case is a 50-year-old cancer patient and wife of the 132nd MERS case. She was receiving outpatient treatment at Samsung Medical Center,” Jeong said.
Jeong added the 132nd case, husband of the newly-confirmed MERS case, had fully recovered and left hospital on Thursday (July 2).
The ministry said more than 90 of the 186 MERS cases in South Korea have been traced to the Samsung Medical Center, tarnishing the image of one of the country’s most prestigious hospitals.
Samsung Medical Center has been criticised after it was revealed that a MERS patient had been in its emergency ward for two-and-a-half days before being diagnosed, coming into contact with nearly 900 people, including staff.
The hospital later suspended most services when an emergency ward orderly tested positive for the virus after working for a number of days despite having symptoms and coming into contact with more than 200 people.
The outbreak in South Korea has been traced to a 68-year-old man who returned from a trip to the Middle East in early May and sought medical help at different hospitals before being diagnosed with the MERS virus.
First identified in humans in 2012, MERS is caused by a corona virus from the same family as that which triggered the 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). There is no cure or vaccine.
