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The World Health Organization has published a new update on Korea’s MERS outbreak, along with a very welcome detailed line-listing of cases to date, a world map (see above), and a new epi curve chart (see below).
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Republic of Korea
Disease outbreak news
19 June 2015Situation in Korea
Between 17 and 19 June 2015, the National IHR Focal Point of the Republic of Korea notified WHO of 12 additional confirmed cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) alongside 5 additional deaths.
Additional information on the outbreak in Korea
To date, a total of 166 MERS-CoV cases, including 24 deaths, have been reported. One of the 166 cases is the case that was confirmed in China and also notified by the National IHR Focal Point of China.
The median age of the patients is 68.5 years old (ranging from 16 to 87 years old). The majority of cases are men (60%). Twenty-one cases (7.9%) are health care professionals. To date, all cases (excluding the index case) have been linked to a single chain of transmission and are associated with health care facilities.
Detailed information concerning MERS-CoV cases in the Republic of Korea can be found in a separate document (see related links).
Public health response
The government of the Republic of Korea continues to implement intense case and contact management activities. As of 19 June, 5,930 contacts are being monitored while a total of 5,535 contacts have been released. The number of new cases occurring each day appears to be declining. This suggests that the containment measures in place are contributing to reduce the rate of new infections.
On 16 June, the Director-General of the World Health Organization convened the ninth Meeting of the Emergency Committee on MERS-CoV under the International Health Regulations. The WHO Secretariat provided the Committee with updates on the epidemiology of MERS-CoV in the Republic of Korea and China. The Committee expressed the need for all countries to be better prepared for the unanticipated possibility of an outbreak but concluded that MERS-CoV does not currently meet the conditions to be classified as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Global situation
Globally, since September 2012, WHO has been notified of 1,333 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including at least 471 related deaths.
The crown jewel of all of this – at least for infectious disease geeks – is an updated, detailed line-listing of cases current through the 17th – downloadable as a PDF file Details of MERS-CoV cases in the Republic of Korea pdf, 155kb
