hankyoreh

June 21. Confirmed MERS patient number 165 was treated there and the hospital is trying to contain the virus. (by Kim Seong-gwang

New infections with Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) appear to be tapering off.

With most of the new cases involving transmission during treatment of patients with the syndrome, many are now calling for stronger safeguards for medical workers.

Meanwhile, a growing number of patients are being discharged as fully recovered from the MERS virus.

The central MERS management and response headquarters announced on June 21 that no new cases had been confirmed on June 19 and three had been confirmed on June 20, bringing the total of confirmed cases up to 169.

The headquarters also explained that the 167th patient, a 53-year-old, had been infected on June 5 by Patient #76 in the emergency room at Kyung Hee University Hospital in Seoul’s Gangdong district, while the 168th patient, a 36-year-old radiological technician at Konkuk University Hospital in Seoul, was infected while taking X-rays of the same patient in the emergency room on June 6.

The 169th patient, a 34-year-old Samsung Seoul Hospital physician and safety employee, contracted the MERS virus while treating Patient #135 after a confirmed diagnosis on June 12.

Patient #112, a 63-year-old with myocardial ischemia and diabetes, died on June 20, bringing to total MERS death toll in South Korea up to 25.

A total of 43 patients had been pronounced fully recovered from MERS as of June 21, or roughly one for every four confirmed cases. The number of recoveries has recently reached six to seven per day since the discharge of the second confirmed South Korean patient on June 5.

At fourteen, patients in their forties represent the largest number of recoveries, followed by eight patients in their fifties and sixties and five in their seventies.

Recovered patients were estimated to have received hospitalization and treatment for an average of 12 days from their diagnosis. The additional two to three days between the first symptoms and the confirmed diagnosis suggests a period of roughly 15 days from initial onset to full recovery.

The fastest discharge came six days after diagnosis, while the longest treatment period for a fully recovered patient was 22 days. Twenty-three of 36 patients (63.9%) infected at the first major MERS infection site - St. Mary’s Hospital in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province - have been pronounced fully recovered and discharged.

One of the discharged patients, a 45-year-old company employee surnamed Choi, shared details of the experience in a June 21 telephone interview with the Hankyoreh.

“I wasn’t in that much pain while I was hospitalized,” said Choi, who was treated for ten days at Gyeonggi-do Medical Center Suwon Hospital after a confirmed diagnosis on June 4. “Other patients said their legs were twisted and they were in a lot of pain, but I just had a high fever for about five days.”

“I just took the prescribed medicine, without any other real treatment,” Choi added.

Most of the recovered patients were prescribed hepatitis C medication and other antiviral treatments and given antibiotics to prevent pneumonia. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a technique to assist cardiopulmonary function, was used for patients who lost the ability to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide in their lungs due to pneumonia.

A patient is pronounced fully recovered when she exhibits no additional symptoms of fever, cough, or respiratory distress and tests negative twice for the virus.

Meanwhile, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disease prevention center chief Jeong Eun-kyung said it was “not yet at the stage where were should be talk about MERS being over.”

“We’ve begun hearing opinions from experts here in South Korea and from the World Health Organization (WHO) and discussing the standards for what constitutes an end,” Jeong added.

The standards for MERS are likely to be similar to those for the Ebola virus, where the outbreak was declared over after no new patients were diagnosed for a period of double the incubation period after the last prior diagnosis.

By Kim Yang-joong, medical correspondent

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