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South Korean Cases Keep Climbing
South Korea reported a rise in MERS infections to 87, and its 6th fatality from the illness—an 80-year-old man.
The authorities shut down nearly 2,000 schools, and announced plans to track 2,500 people under quarantine through their cellphones.
Meanwhile, other Asian nations began taking preventive steps, and a WHO team is set to begin an evaluation of the outbreak response tomorrow. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told the South Korean news agency, Yonhap, that the Korean culture of families caring for their loved ones at hospitals may have contributed to the spread of MERS within health care facilities.
Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/
Hidden Infections
About 40,000 people in Saudi Arabia have probably contracted the virus in the past decade, and never even knew they had it, revealed a study in the Lancet (http://www.thelancet.com/
The researchers examined more than 10,000 blood samples for the presence of antibodies against the MERS virus, and found antibodies in 15 people—but the rate among people working with camels or camel meat was 5 in 140, according to Christian Drosten, the director of the Institute of Virology at the University of Bonn. That’s 23X the overall rate. Using that, he derived the estimate of 40,000 infections.
The National (http://www.thenational.ae/
Related: WHO, S.Korea to conduct joint probe into MERS spread – Global Times (https://www.google.com/url?
Related: MERS Cases Rise in South Korea, Health Officials Say – The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/
Related: S. Korea shuts nearly 2,000 schools as MERS cases soar – Al Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com/
South Korea Records Sixth MERS Death
South Korea reported on Monday that a sixth person has died from the Middle East respiratory syndrome virus, and that twenty-three more people were infected (WSJ). Eighty-seven people have been infected since a South Korean man carrying the virus returned from the Middle East in May.
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