'Authorities have traced and separated 20 people who have come in close contact with the infected person,' says the head of Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea reported its first case of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 3 years, health officials said on Saturday, September 8. The 61-year-old patient had been on a business trip to Kuwait from Aug 16 to Sept 6, and returned to Seoul via the United Arab Emirates last Friday, according to the KCDC. "As far as we know, 20 people, including flight attendants and medical staff, have been in close contact with the patient and they are under isolation at home," KCDC director Jeong Eun-kyeong told a press briefing yesterday. ‘The patient, a 61-year-old man, was diagnosed with the MERS virus on Saturday after returning from a business trip in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with transit in Kuwait, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.’

The patient was admitted to a hospital in Kuwait when he began to show some symptoms of the disease and upon arrival to South Korea was transferred to the Samsung Medical Centre in Seoul.The hospital alerted the authorities that it could be a possible case of MERS as symptoms included high fever and pneumonia and moved the patient to the Seoul National University Hospital where he tested positive for the potentially deadly virus.Around 20 people who were in close contact with the patient, including passengers and crew members of his flight and immigration officers, have been quarantined to prevent the spread of the virus.This is the first case of MERS in South Korea since its outbreak recorded between May and December 2015, after this virus was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and subsequently expanded to other countries.The mortality rate of MERS in South Korea reached 20 per cent during the outbreak, below the figures between 30 and 40 per cent that were recorded in other areas.Most of the 38 deaths that occurred due to the virus in South Korea were elderly people or patients affected by other illnesses.Source: IANS
A South Korean man is diagnosed with the potentially deadly MERS virus and is being treated at a hospital in Seoul, the first such case in three years.