Middle East respiratory syndrome: what we learned from the 2015 outbreak in the Republic of Korea.
- Author:
Myoung Don OH
1
;
Wan Beom PARK
;
Sang Won PARK
;
Pyoeng Gyun CHOE
;
Ji Hwan BANG
;
Kyoung Ho SONG
;
Eu Suk KIM
;
Hong Bin KIM
;
Nam Joong KIM
Author Information
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords: Coronavirus infections; Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus; Coronavirus; Korea; Disease outbreaks
- MeSH: Coronavirus; Coronavirus Infections*; Disease Outbreaks; Epidemiology; Humans; Korea; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus; Middle East*; Pneumonia; Republic of Korea*; Virology
- From:The Korean Journal of Internal Medicine 2018;33(2):233-246
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was first isolated from a patient with severe pneumonia in 2012. The 2015 Korea outbreak of MERSCoV involved 186 cases, including 38 fatalities. A total of 83% of transmission events were due to five superspreaders, and 44% of the 186 MERS cases were the patients who had been exposed in nosocomial transmission at 16 hospitals. The epidemic lasted for 2 months and the government quarantined 16,993 individuals for 14 days to control the outbreak. This outbreak provides a unique opportunity to fill the gap in our knowledge of MERS-CoV infection. Therefore, in this paper, we review the literature on epidemiology, virology, clinical features, and prevention of MERS-CoV, which were acquired from the 2015 Korea outbreak of MERS-CoV.
