South Korea struggles to contain Mers outbreak

SEOUL // South Korea struggled to contain an outbreak of Mers on Monday as health authorities announced three more cases, bringing the number of infections to 18 in just over 10 days.

Authorities are considering a ban on overseas travel for the nearly 700 people isolated for possible infection of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

It comes after a 44-year-old man broke a voluntary house quarantine last week and flew to Hong Kong, before travelling to mainland China.

The man subsequently tested positive for Mers – China’s first confirmed case – setting off alarm bells as health officials traced his footsteps and tested dozens of people who had been in close contact with him.

South Korea’s health ministry confirmed three more cases on Monday.

All 18 cases have been linked to a 68-year-old man, who returned from Bahrain via Qatar on May 20. They were either patients or visitors to the hospital where he was being treated.

Later, a 58-year-old woman who had contact with the first patient but was not tested, died of respiratory failure, a health ministry official said, adding that clinical tests were being conducted to verify her cause of death.

First identified in humans in 2012, Mers is caused by a coronavirus from the same family as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about 800 people worldwide. There is no cure or vaccine.

The World Health Organization put the total number of Mers cases globally at 1,150 with at least 427 related deaths.

* Reuters