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KCDC staff take preventative measures being taken aboard a Korean Air flight to Dubai at Incheon International Airport on Sept. 13. (joint photo pool)
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KCDC announces no additional suspected cases have emerged
Eleven people showing apparent symptoms of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) after being in contact with a 61-year-old patient have all tested negative for the virus. “To date, eleven people have been tested for suspected MERS symptoms. All of them have tested negative, and no additional suspected cases have emerged,” the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) reported on Sept. 13. But the whereabouts of four of the foreign passengers who arrived in South Korea on the same airplane as the patient – whose identity is being kept anonymous – have yet to be ascertained. The number of people established as being in “close contact” with the patient remained at 21, while the number with “ordinary contact” rose to 438 from the 435 announced the day before. Two passengers who occupied places near the seat used by the confirmed patient were added to the ordinary contact list when they entered South Korea after the aircraft departed, and an additional passenger who used the same limousine taxi as the patient was also confirmed and included as having been in ordinary contact. The KCDC explained that it was conducting MERS testing for the 21 individuals in close contact on Sept. 13, the sixth day after the patient’s diagnosis, due to the average MERS incubation period of five to seven days. The results of the testing are expected to come on Sept. 14. Additional testing of individuals who came into close contact is also to be carried out on Sept. 20, just before the incubation period ends and the individuals return to their daily activities. No specifics have yet emerged on how or where the patient became infected with MERS. In response to reports that the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health had claimed Kuwait was “not the place of infection,” the KCDC explained, “We have not received an official letter from Kuwait.” “We believe the infection did not occur in South Korea, and we will announce our findings on the source of the infection following careful confirmation,” it added. Two KCDC epidemiology investigators and one non-government expert departed the same day for Kuwait to verify the health management and epidemiology study details of individuals in contact with the patient there. By Park Hyun-jung, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
