By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
More than a third of South Korea’s 150 MERS cases so far have involved people aged 50 or below, according to Seoul’s health ministry on Monday.
It is a statistic that banishes the myth that this flu-like illness only strikes the elderly and infirm - of the local outbreak’s 16 victims, two had no underlying medical conditions of significance.
Then there is the teenager still being treated, and the seven-year-old boy whose series of tests in recent days have proven to be inconclusive so far.
The speed at which this "Middle East" disease has swept through the South Korean population since May 20 has caused ripples of panic across society, not least for the reeling local economy.
A glance at Saudi Arabia’s more than 40 percent fatality rate among over 1,000 infections is sufficiently disconcerting for people in South Korea, which was exposed by a man returning from the Middle East last month.
Despite the fact that almost all cases have occurred within healthcare settings, local fears have also been exacerbated by a self-confessed insufficient initial response by the authorities coupled with defiance on the part of some South Koreans suspected of having contracted MERS.
It was additionally confirmed by officials on Monday that there may have been 12 so-called "super spreaders" on the loose. That is, people who managed to escape quarantine measures despite turning out to have MERS - potentially passing on the viral disease to thousands of others.
Among the dozen was a staff member at Samsung Medical Center (SMC) in Seoul’s plush Gangnam area. The prestigious facility was partially closed as of the weekend and is under investigation, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office earlier in the day.
Around half of South Korea’s official MERS cases passed through SMC in recent weeks, including a 42-year-old who visited for a check-up on May 27.
According to Gangnam Community Health Center, the person in question later went to the center on June 12 - three days after showing MERS symptoms - and then remarkably was able to break out of the hospital before being persuaded to return the next day.
“If I have MERS I will spread it all around,” the patient was heard shouting, according to officials cited by The Korea Herald.
It should come as no major surprise, then, that the health ministry believes around 10,000 people are subject to isolation orders.
