A South Korean woman who had contact with a patient diagnosed with MERS has died of symptoms that are a hallmark of the dreaded respiratory virus, South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare said Monday.
Minister Kwon Jun-wook said the body of the woman, who was in her late 50s, is being tested for the Middle East respiratory syndrome. Officials will report their findings to the public as soon as possible, Kwon said at a Seoul press conference.
If linked to MERS, the woman’s case will mark the first MERS-related death in South Korea and the second in Asia.
Eighteen people have been diagnosed with MERS in South Korea, health officials said Monday.
South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare is recommending that the government temporarily ban people exposed to MERS from leaving the country to prevent the virus from spreading, Kwon said.
Scientists are still trying to discern how the virus is contracted. It can cause fever, cough and shortness of breath, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some people also have had gastrointestinal symptoms including diarrhea, nausea and vomiting while people with severe complications from the virus suffered pneumonia and kidney failure.
Some people also had gastrointestinal symptoms including diarrhea and nausea/vomiting. For many people with MERS, more severe complications followed, such as pneumonia and kidney failure. About 3-4 out of every 10 people reported with MERS have died. Most of the people who died had an underlying medical condition, according to the CDC. Some infected people had only mild symptoms (such as cold-like symptoms) or no symptoms at all.
A paper published in July 2014 in the journal mBio said that it might be airborne.
At the time, there was what the World Health Organization deemed a particularly alarming outbreak, in Saudi Arabia and the United States, CNN reported. The first cases were documented in spring 2012 and were linked to camels.
The researchers detected fragments of the virus in the air at a barn where four of nine camels were infected. They called for additional measures to prevent possible camel to human transmission, but also emphasized that more research was needed.
According to a May WHO report, between the 18th and 23rd of the month, the National Health Regulations arm of WHO received reports of four new cases of MERS in Saudi Arabia, including one death.
As of May 25,WHO has received 1,139 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS globally, including at least 431 related deaths.
In South Korea, a temporary task force focusing on MERS reported that 15 of 18 MERS patients in the country had been in medical facilities and were in direct contact with the first patient to be diagnosed with the virus.
Among those sick, five are in unstable condition, with one in critical. The first patient developed symptoms on May 11 and suffered from pneumonia and respiratory difficulty, but is in stable condition. That means, according to officials, that the person’s odds of surviving are greater.
At least 682 people are quarantined in their homes or at medical facilities, Kwon said.
Fear about the virus is gripping many in South Korea. There are no vaccines, no cures and the fatality rate for the illness is high.