Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Professor: Lack of camel contact could be making Koreans more vulnerable to MERS
Posted on : Jun.16,2015 16:18 KST
Modified on : Jun.16,2015 16:18 KST
With MERS spreading faster in S. Korean than in the Middle East, questions coming up over antibodies
Early on in the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, public health authorities said infection required close contact with patients.
The common wisdom in the medical community was that only those who spent an hour or more within two meters of a person with MERS would contract the virus.
...
?The spread of infection in South Korea has been very different from what we saw in the Middle East, to the point where some people are questioning whether airborne MERS infections are taking place,? said Yonsei University Graduate School of Public Health professor and former Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Jun Byung-yool.
?One of the reasons [for the difference] may be that people in the Middle East have antibodies against the MERS virus from their frequent contact with camels, and South Koreans don?t have them,? Jun added.
The argument is that South Koreans may contract the MERS virus even from relatively light exposure.
...
Indeed, some cases of MERS infection in South Korea have involved exposure for as little as ten minutes. Healthcare workers in the emergency room at Samsung Seoul Hospital were infected after spending 30 to 40 minutes treating other patients who did not have the virus. At St. Mary?s Hospital in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province the first patient spread MERS to other patients who were on the same floor in different rooms.
...
By Kim Yang-joong, medical correspondent
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/696187.html
Posted on : Jun.16,2015 16:18 KST
Modified on : Jun.16,2015 16:18 KST
With MERS spreading faster in S. Korean than in the Middle East, questions coming up over antibodies
Early on in the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, public health authorities said infection required close contact with patients.
The common wisdom in the medical community was that only those who spent an hour or more within two meters of a person with MERS would contract the virus.
...
?The spread of infection in South Korea has been very different from what we saw in the Middle East, to the point where some people are questioning whether airborne MERS infections are taking place,? said Yonsei University Graduate School of Public Health professor and former Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention director Jun Byung-yool.
?One of the reasons [for the difference] may be that people in the Middle East have antibodies against the MERS virus from their frequent contact with camels, and South Koreans don?t have them,? Jun added.
The argument is that South Koreans may contract the MERS virus even from relatively light exposure.
...
Indeed, some cases of MERS infection in South Korea have involved exposure for as little as ten minutes. Healthcare workers in the emergency room at Samsung Seoul Hospital were infected after spending 30 to 40 minutes treating other patients who did not have the virus. At St. Mary?s Hospital in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province the first patient spread MERS to other patients who were on the same floor in different rooms.
...
By Kim Yang-joong, medical correspondent
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/696187.html