With more MERS cases, South Korea says outbreak at crossroads

A couple wearing masks to prevent contracting Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) rides a tandem bicycle at the Han river park in Seoul, South Korea, June 22, 2015.

REUTERS/KIM HONG-JI

South Korea's health ministry, which reported four new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) on Wednesday, said the outbreak was at a crossroads, backing off from its earlier view that the spread of the often-deadly virus had leveled off.

The more guarded assessment came as the government extended the partial shutdown of Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, which had been due to end on Wednesday. About half the 179 infections in the country have been traced to the prestigious hospital, including some of this week's new cases.

"We are at a crossroads, whether this is going to spread further or not," Kwon Deok-cheol, the health ministry's chief policy official, told a news briefing.

"As of now we can't answer that part because additional cases have occurred, although we thought until last weekend it had leveled off," he said when asked if there was any change in its earlier view that the outbreak had settled.

The country reported no new MERS case on June 20 but since then 13 fresh cases have been confirmed. During the peak of the outbreak early this month, new infections exceeded 20 on some days.

A total of 67 people who had tested positive for the MERS virus have recovered and been discharged from hospital since the outbreak started in May, while 27 patients have died.

South Korea's outbreak of the virus is the largest outside Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday, the heir apparent of South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] bowed in apology during a nationally televised address for the failure to stop the spread of the virus at the hospital run by a group foundation.

Source: Reuters

Kim Jong Un says North Korean miracle drug cures cancer, AIDS and Ebola

KNS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, seen here visiting a hospital, says his country has discovered a cure for cancer, AIDS and a whole bunch of other maladies.

Well, that’s a relief.

According to North Korean despot Kim Jong Un, there is now a miracle drug that wipes out cancer, AIDS, MERS and Ebola.

The impoverished dictatorship announced Friday that scientists have created a drug called Kumdang-2, made with ginseng grown with fertilizer and other “rare-earth elements.”

“Malicious virus infections like SARS, Ebola and MERS are diseases that are related to immune systems, so they can easily be treated by Kumdang-2 injection drug,” said a post on the Korean Central News Agency, the state’s official media site.

The announcement came as South Korea is battling a MERS epidemic that has killed two dozen people.

The strange leader has made a series of fantastical claims since taking power in 2011. He learned to drive at age 3 and won a yacht race at age 9, according to his official bio.

He also is an artist, a conductor, a mountain climber and a pilot, state records say.

He also believes in unicorns, according to some reports.

With News Wire Services

Source: New York Daily News

Omani MERS patient's relatives tested for virus in Thailand

Photo By Pornchai Kittiwongsakul

Thai authorities on Friday said two relatives of an Omani man found to have MERS were being tested for the deadly virus in the kingdom.

Thailand, a booming medical tourism hub popular with Middle Eastern patients, on Thursday confirmed the Omani, 75, had MERS, days after he arrived at a Bangkok hospital for treatment for a heart condition.

On Friday the Omani patient was "getting a bit better", said Thailand's Public Health Minister Rajata Rajatanavin at a press conference on the outskirts of Bangkok.

But two of his male family members, among three relatives with whom he travelled to Thailand on Monday, were being tested for MERS after one was found to have a cough and the other a fever.

"We have taken their samples for laboratory testing," Rajata told reporters, adding the results should be available Friday evening.

The relatives are in quarantine at the Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute in Nonthaburi province outside the Thai capital where the Omani patient is also being treated.

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has spread at a rapid pace in South Korea since the first case was diagnosed on May 20, infecting 166 people in what is the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.

The MERS case was the first recorded in Thailand and also the first in Southeast Asia since the South Korean outbreak.

Thai authorities are monitoring a further 85 people who have been in contact with the Omani, including those on board his flight to Bangkok, at hospital or in their homes, a health ministry spokesman told AFP Friday.

Authorities are also still trying to locate one of the 21 "high risk" people identified on that flight -- a person from the northeastern Thai province of Buriram.

In a bid to contain the deadly virus Thai officials have installed thermoscans at airports to detect passengers with fever and are also handing out information pamphlets about MERS in Thai, Arabic and English.

Rajata also said that Thailand has informed airlines about the transit passengers and crew who are no longer in the country but deemed at risk after sharing the flight with the Omani man.

Earlier government spokesman Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told AFP authorities were confident that Thailand's measures to contain the virus were "under control".

According to World Health Organization data MERS cases have been reported in four Asian countries before Thailand since the virus first surfaced in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

Malaysia and the Philippines reported cases before the South Korean outbreak in May, while China reported a person with MERS who had travelled to the country after recent exposure in South Korea, according to a WHO statement.

Source: Yahoo News