NOTE: Due to a blog formatting problem I was unable to resolve, I was forced to remove the previous blog on the ECDC's Risk Assessment on Diphtheria in Spain.
The link to that report is HERE.
# 10,211
From the Korean CDC English MERS portal:
The government will make all-out efforts to control MERS by placing a constant “Committee for Inspection and Investigation on Epidemic Prevention and Control (Preliminary title)” in the Samsung Medical Center (Seoul) from June 15. This committee will be led by the Prime Minister’s office.
¨ The MERS Immediate Response Team of 24 experts for the Samsung Medical Center (Seoul) has been launched, which includes 10 private-sector experts, 6 MOHW officials for epidemic prevention and 4 officials for epidemiological investigation.¨ This Immediate Response Team has put 5,588 MERS contacts under house or hospital quarantine while continuing examination and analysis on recent confirmed cases. In particular, the team followed the line of movement of #137 through CC-TV to analyze the risk of transmission within the hospital. The team also monitors the hospital’s partial shut-down and infection control for isolated patient rooms.
¨ With respect to #143 from Joeun Gangan Hospital in Busan, the government is making its best endeavors to prevent the spread of tertiary infections. The emergency response team was dispatched from the central epidemiological investigation unit immediately after the first MERS test came out positive. CCTV analysis was conducted and the list of MERS contacts was written after the immediate shut-down of the hospital and the placement of a police barricade.
¨ As part of the efforts to prevent further infections, thorough countermeasures such as cohort quarantine has been implemented. The cohort quarantine measure applies to the MERS contacts who have been in hospitals with high levels of MERS exposure, and isolates these individuals under group quarantine within hospitals.
¨ Major hospitals for cohort quarantine include Konkuk Univeristy Medical Center, KyungHee University Hospital (Gangdong), Mediheal Hospital, Hallym University Medical Center (Dongtan), Goodmorning hospital, Asan Chungmu Hospital, Daecheong Hospital, Konyang University Hospital, Eulji University Hospital and SK Hospital (Changwon).
¨ As of June 15, 150 have been diagnosed with MERS and 120 are under treatment. Thus far, the death toll from the outbreak has reached 16 while 14 have been discharged from hospitals. Compared to yesterday, 5 confirmed cases, 2 deaths and 4 discharges have been newly added.
¨ Directors of hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area held an emergency meeting to discuss follow-up measures to minimize confusion and inconveniences that may be caused by the partial shutdown of the Samsung Medical Center (Seoul).
¨ The Samsung Medical Center (Seoul) will provide care to inpatients until June 24 while continuing anti-cancer treatment, radiation therapy and blood dialysis during the same period. Outpatients who have been using the Samsung Medical Center will have to seek care in other hospitals. The Samsung Medical Center will transfer the medical records of their patients to these hospitals in real time by establishing a network.
