MERS Update - On Tuesday, South Korea declared that it has finally contained the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak that killed 36 people in the nation. During a meeting with the government officials in Seoul, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn announced that they have effectively ended the threats posed by the MERS outbreak.
Dubbed as the biggest epidemic of the virus outside Saudi Arabia, the MERS outbreak in South Korea has ignited widespread panic and thwarted growth in Asia's fourth-largest economy. According to Business Recorder, the outbreak also took a heavy damage on the national economy, confining spending and paralyzing tourism in the nation. A severe decline in sales was also reported in local businesses such as shopping malls, restaurants and cinemas as people avoided public venues with huge crowds.
Moreover, thousands of schools were closed at the peak of the outbreak, as concerned parents decided to keep their children at home.
"After weighing various circumstances, the medical personnel and the government judge that the people can now be free from worry," Hwang said. "I ask the public to shake off all concerns over MERS and to resume normal daily activities, including economic, cultural, leisure and school activities."
As South Korea seeks to improve the major dent in their economy, authorities declared that the nation is MERS-free. However, as per the World Health Organization standards, a four-week waiting period after the last MERS patient fully recovers is required before it can be declared that the MERS outbreak is definitely over.
"We will continue to carry out remaining measures and responses until the situation comes to a formal end," senior health ministry official Kwon Duk-cheol told reporters. "We still have many arrivals from the Middle East so there is always a possibility that new patients can come in."
Kwon also added that screening stations in airports would continue to operate.
The MERS virus is considered the more lethal but less infectious cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), which killed hundreds of people when it spread in Asia in 2003.
Since South Korea's initial response to the MERS outbreak was widely criticized, the government launched extensive quarantine measures that monitored almost 17,000 people confined to their homes. South China Morning Post learned the policy was effective in containing the spread of the virus to medical facilities, with no infections reported in the wider community.
Meanwhile, two existing and widely available drugs may prove to be effective cures for MERS. In a recently published research helmed by the University of Hong Kong, the medicines — lopinavir with ritonavir and a type of interferon — which are used to treat HIV and sclerosis, were found to be effective in curing MERS-infected marmosets, Time reported.
"We would recommend doctors to start using both drugs immediately to treat MERS patients if they are critical," researcher Jasper Chan Fuk-woo told SCMP. "The evidence in this study is quite strong in proving the effectiveness of these two drugs."
